ROME, N.Y. — It wasn’t quite 3:30 on a Tuesday afternoon, when a storm rolled into the city that would literally change its landscape.
Later classified by the National Weather Service’s Binghamton office as an EF2 tornado, the storm swept through downtown Rome with winds of up to 135 miles per hour, damaging more than 20 buildings and countless homes, tearing up trees, and turning lives upside down.
The Kabari Wellness Institute, at 214 W. Liberty St., was one of several downtown businesses devastated by the storm.
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“We’re all trying to wrap our heads around it,” owner Dr. Kinsley Kabari said on July 17, the day after the tornado struck. “Our wellness institute has significant damage to it. Our entire front and roof is gone.”
Volunteers were helping Kabari clean up at the business, which had been open a little over a year. The business was one of several that Gov. Kathy Hochul visited when touring the city’s damage that Wednesday.
Kabari says he hopes to rebuild and had a structural engineer, contractors, and someone from his insurance company on site.
“The insurance will not be able to cover it all,” he says, adding that a friend had established a GoFundMe campaign to help out.
The Rome Area Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the city, is accepting applications for its Emergency Business Fund to help businesses that suffered hardships due to the tornado.
The fund, originally established during the pandemic, will give businesses up to $5,000, Chamber Board Chairman Nick Angelicola tells CNYBJ. The funding is designed to help with things businesses need now like buying plywood to board up broken windows, providing that help now before insurance kicks in.
The fund is fueled from $300,000 contributions from both the city and the county, as well as the approximately $70,000 the chamber already had. On top of that, “local companies that wanted to step up and help” have also contributed to the fund, Angelicola says.
Businesses can apply for funding at https://business.romechamber.com/form/view/33651.
Damage at Engelbert’s
Engelbert’s Jewelers, Inc.’s Rome location at 265 W. Dominick Street suffered significant damage, owner Sarah Rushton says.
“The roof was damaged,” she says. “The roof was actually lifted off in one corner.” The building’s rubber-roof overlay is now hanging over one side of the building. The powerful winds topped one air-conditioning unit over and lifted another one off the roof, dropping it in the roadway.
“There are more ceiling tiles on the floor than on the ceiling,” Rushton says. “It’s going to be a total gut job.”
Fortunately, all employees who were at the store were unharmed, she adds, as was all the customer jewelry on site, which was locked in the store’s vault. The jewelry has since been moved to Engelbert’s New Hartford location.
“I’ve lost computers,” Rushton says. “I’ve lost some inventory.” Fortunately, she adds, she has good insurance, including business interruption coverage, so she’ll be able to rebuild and also pay her employees until the store is open again.
Rushton says she hopes to have a temporary location up and running in Rome within the next six weeks.
Along with destruction, the tornado brought other changes to the city. Honor America Days, scheduled for July 27, were postponed and will be rescheduled for another date.
Oneida County’s facilities in Rome suffered damage, forcing the county to set up temporary offices for some. The Rome Department of Motor Vehicles office is shuttered until further notice, with people directed to the Utica office inside Union Station.
The county’s Department of Social Services worked out of two mobile-operations units set up in the parking lot at the corner of North James Street and Liberty Street until the county could open a more permanent solution in the former Berkshire Bank building, Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente, Jr. says.
The tally on homes damaged by the tornado stood at about 350 on July 23, and Picente says he expects that number to continue rising. At least seven homes have been deemed a complete loss.
The Rome tornado was not the only one to strike that day. The National Weather Service confirmed damage consistent with a tornado in the town of Lee, located just northwest of Rome. In neighboring Madison County, Canastota experienced an EF1 tornado shortly before the Rome storm. As of July 22, there had been 20 confirmed tornados across New York for the month. The previous record was 13 in July 1992.
The state has requested a federal Emergency Declaration from President Joseph Biden to help support the recovery operations across the 15 counties impacted by storms on July 15 and 16. Such a declaration would authorize the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide reimbursement for an array of recovery needs.
Hochul’s request includes Chemung, Genesee, Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Montgomery, Oswego, Oneida, Ontario, Saratoga, Schuyler, Steuben, and Warren counties.
