BUFFALO, N.Y. — Neighbors and crews in downtown Buffalo continued the cleanup effort after Monday’s EF-1 tornado shifting their focus from trees and powerlines to damaged homes and buildings.
Homeowners on Prospect Street expressed their surprise about the unexpected damage, but also gratitude.
“It’s usually shovels, not chainsaws,” said Steve Gedra.
Gedra's home, built in 1861 and affectionately called 'Big Red' had three chimneys blown over and a support on his front porch damaged.
“A roof went flying over our house. The old gal, she stood up straight for us, big red took it and kept going," Gedra said.
The National Weather Service confirmed that Monday's tornado was the first to hit downtown Buffalo since 1950.
Having lived across the country, Gedra said Monday's storm was “the worst” he'd ever seen but that he was grateful the City of Buffalo responded so quickly.
“The response time for them clearing the streets and getting the power back on was pretty spectacular,” he said. “People seem to be moving quickly and it’s all about getting insurance down here and figuring out what the next move is.”
All things considered, Gedra's old home faired pretty well. Some of his neighbors were not as lucky.
Another home on Prospect Street had its roof lifted and tossed by the wind. Roofing crews were out Tuesday building a structure to at least keep the rain out.
Gedra's backyard and many of his neighbors still had downed trees and toppled fences as well as building debris from who knows where scattered about.
Some of which, likely came from 257 Niagara Street, a red brick building that had its roof blown off on Monday.
“I saw a whirlwind of bricks just flying everywhere,” said Ken Colon, whose business Mighty Fine Fashions is located on the first floor of the building.
Colon's business, and another one, Niagara Food are closed for the foreseeable future. The brick building was deemed unsafe to occupy by city officials.
“We went inside and took cover and just waited for everything to blow over,” Colon said. “Pretty scary moments and it was over pretty quickly.”
The building had chunks of its roof ripped off, windows broken, and bricks strewn across the sidewalk.
“I'm happy nobody got hurt,” said Abdo Saleh who lived on the upper floors of the building with his family.
Saleh told reporters Tuesday, that he was at home watching TV when the tornado blew through Buffalo. He described feeling the wind rush through his home and initially didn't know what happened.
"I feel the air come to me. I get up to close the window and everything is down," Saleh said.
He described calling his son and telling him that the roof had caved in, scattering bricks, beams and other building materials throughout the home.
Saleh was unharmed and relieved his grandkids who would have typically been with him, were not and instead at the doctor's office. He believes if "the babies" were home, they could have been seriously injured.
“A family was displaced… it’s sad,” said Ken Colon, the owner of Mighty Fine Fashions.
Saleh and Colon hugged and expressed some optimism about their difficult situation.
“Buffalo is a community that cares about its neighbors, its family members, its community business owners... we feel that we’re mighty strong and were going to get through it someway somehow, one day at a time,” Colon said.
Colon said he hasn't heard much about what's next for the building other than he can't go inside.
Several contractors were out inspecting the damage as they prepared to advise the building's owner about what to do.
A GoFundMe had been set up to help support Colon and Mighty Fine Fashions as they look to rebuild.