The afternoon of May 31, 1998 was hot and humid. You could almost feel the water in the air. Weather reports were coming in throughout the day and it was apparent the area was in the line of some nasty storms.

I remember driving to work in Latham late that afternoon as the storms were moving in. Heavy rain was bearing down and visibility was almost zero looking out my windshield. One thing you could see were the bright, white flashes of lightning hitting the ground on all sides.

The night went on and things got worse. Severe Thunderstorm Warnings turned into Tornado Warnings. The Emergency Alert System that all radio and TV stations use to interrupt regular programming to deliver important information, was going off non-stop.

The sun was barely seen that day, and wouldn't return to really expose the reality the nightmare until the following morning. We knew the storms were bad, but two towns in Saratoga County bared the brunt, suffering some of the worst destruction the area had ever seen.

Photos and video taken on June 1, 1998 show just how devastating the previous night's weather had been. Sixty-eight people were injured, over $70 million in damage, but miraculously, nobody was killed.

The Aftermath of the 1998 Mechanicville-Stillwater Tornado

On May 31, 1998 a rare but powerful tornado ripped through the towns of Mechanicville and Stillwater in Saratoga County. The following day the reality of the devastation set in. Homes, buildings, businesses and vehicles were destroyed, not to mention the hundreds of families who were left homeless.

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