Jun 2, 2002 4 min read

WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. (AP) – A series of lightning bolts that prompted the closing of some rides at a Pittsburgh amusement park was thought to have passed when strong winds and heavy rain began bombarding visitors. Kaci Harshey, a 16-year-old on a school outing at Kennywood Park, said the weather was clear and sunshine poked through the clouds minutes before the storm tore through Friday, killing one woman and sending at least 47 people to hospitals.

“It started hailing and we just got missed by a tree,” said Harshey, who dashed for shelter with a friend. “It would have hit us if we were going slower.”

Authorities say a wooden building covering a ride called The Whip, one of the oldest rides in the park, collapsed shortly before 7 p.m., crushing and killing Stephanie Wilkerson, 30, of Monroeville. The structure was ripped out of its foundation and thrown 20 feet, pinning Wilkerson against a fence.

Wilkerson’s mother, Helen, said her daughter was at the park with a cousin when the accident happened. She said the family is devastated but declined to talk further about the accident.

Kennywood spokeswoman Mary Lou Rosemeyer said employees began arriving at 6 a.m. Saturday, armed with brooms, rakes and chain saws, to help with the cleanup. Peter McAneny, the park’s vice president and general manager, said about six rides, including The Whip, were damaged, mostly by debris.

The park will remain closed Sunday, but McAneny said it could open as early as Monday. McAneny said there were about 10,000 people in the park Friday.

Rosemeyer said much of the cleanup at the 40-acre park involved sweeping up debris, removing broken or uprooted trees and moving food from a warehouse that lost power. McAneny said the park will conduct an assessment of the damages.

Authorities say most of the injured were hurt by hail or flying debris during the storm, which lasted about 30 minutes and was accompanied by 80-mph winds.

Rosemeyer said the park’s major rides were shut when lightning began, saying the park has an emergency procedure, which is reviewed on a continual basis.

“There are a number of rides, such as the Pitfall or rollercoasters – the rides that would be vulnerable – are closed (when severe weather approaches),” she said. “And it’s my understanding that those rides were closed before this happened. The Whip wouldn’t be one because it can run in the rain.”

Harshey described the weather as being pleasant throughout Friday and said all the rides were shut when lightning began to rumble the early evening sky.

When the lightning stopped after 15 minutes, Harshey and her friends stood in line for The Exterminator, thinking the ride would reopen.

“We stood in line for about 10 minutes and they told us they weren’t going to open up any time soon so we went to get ice cream,” Harshey said.

That’s when the storm hit, forcing visitors to seek shelter.

After the storm passed, Harshey said, she walked out to a scene of destruction. As she walked toward the entrance, she said, entire trees blocked pathways, signs were torn off or broken and pieces of buildings were littered everywhere.

“A couple of boys and girls were bleeding by their ears,” Harshey said. “People were walking toward first aid, holding their arms and everything.”

Melanie Finnigan, spokeswoman for Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, said the hospital admitted 12 children, which she estimated range in age from 9 to 14 years old. Most had neck, face and head injuries, but two had surgery, one for internal bleeding in the neck and the other for a large facial cut.

An Allegheny County emergency dispatcher said there was widespread flooding, downed trees and wires and mudslides from the central to northern parts of the county.

Dr. Richard N. Townsend, a trauma unit physician at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, said most of the injuries he had seen were among parents.

“They were actually shielding their children,” he said.

The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh said the storm was not a tornado.

The Whip, added to the park in 1918, consists of 16 cars that travel along an oblong track and “whip” as they go around the bend at either end. The roof over the building housing the ride was constructed in 1995.

The 103-year-old Kennywood Park, 10 miles from downtown Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River, has 31 major rides, including three wooden roller coasters. It has been designated a national and state historic landmark.

On July 8, 1999, 30 people were injured at the park when the operator of the Thunderbolt, a 75-year-old wooden roller coaster, failed to put on the brakes when a train of cars pulled into the loading platform and rear-ended another train. None of the injuries was serious.