ROME — I first knew the July 16 tornado was real when I got a hurried telephone call from Lt. Sharon Rood of the Rome Police Department requesting that we alert people to a State of Emergency declaration in Rome. That’s never happened before on this job.

Then other calls started coming in. Downtown was destroyed. Churches were toppled. Was the Paul Revere sign gone? No, just the Peter Gansevoort mural that has stood in Rome for more than 20 years. Lost forever.