Hara Arena Severely Damaged as Tornado Cluster Hits Dayton Area

Drone footage shows extensive tornado damage to Hara Arena,
former longtime home of the Dayton Hamvention. (WHIO-TV
photo, via W8CI)

The former home of the Dayton Hamvention suffered significant damage from a tornado that swept through the Dayton suburb of Trotwood on Monday night, May 27.

Drone video from WHIO-TV shows that the storm apparently passed directly over Hara Arena, ripping off large sections of its roof and causing a large amount of additional damage (amazingly, the car dealership across from Hara appears to have had little to no damage - see the end of the video). Hara Arena closed in 2016 and the Hamvention has been held for the past three years at the Greene County Fairgrounds in nearby Xenia.


Accuweather reported that the twister passed directly over Interstate 75, the main north-south highway through the Dayton area, and that highway crews used snowplows to clear debris from the road. There were no reported deaths from the Trotwood tornado, but there was at least one fatality resulting from another twister north of Dayton. A map posted by the Cincinnati Enquirer showed at least a dozen different tornado touchdowns in the Dayton area.