Assessment teams converged on Salt Lake City Thursday to begin calculating the terrible toll of Wednesday's tornado.
The twister hit hard and fast, tearing apart buildings, shutting down power and scattering debris for miles.
One person was killed and at least 81 people were taken to area hospitals. The fatally wounded man was identified as Allen Crandy, 38, Las Vegas.
Crandy, in town for the Outdoor Retailers Summer Market convention at the Salt Palace, was also president of a group advocating rights for autistic children. He had a wife, two daughters and a son.
Hospital officials said 16 people remained hospitalized Thursday morning, with three in critical condition. The name of only one critically injured patient was available.
She was identified Patricia Schmidt, 40, hometown unknown, who suffered head injuries and remained at University Hospital.
Roman Figueroa, 29, Sandy, was in serious condition at Lakeview Hospital after being struck by lightning at a Woods Cross business during the same storm.
At the Delta Center, one of the commercial buildings most badly damaged by the twister, Utah Jazz and Delta Center executives huddled, attempting to assess the damage and calculating whether the initial estimate of six weeks for repairs can be shortened.
The nearby Wyndham Hotel, 215 W. South Temple, was the next large structure in the tornado's northeastern path of destruction. Dozens of windows were smashed, and bed linens and other items were sucked out into the street.
The hotel was closed Wednesday evening and guests — Wyndham spokeswoman Maureen Bailey didn't know the number of people staying at the 381-room facility — were shuttled to other hotels in the area. Wyndham executives were unable to estimate Thursday morning how long it will take to make repairs and reopen.
Approximately 300 homes were damaged, many in the historic Avenues neighborhood. Forty of those suffered severe damage, 80 had moderate damage and 180 had light damage.
"I think focus has to be two-pronged," Salt Lake Assistant Police Chief Roy Wasden said Thursday.
"We need to help people get back to their lives, we need to get businesses opened and restore things to normal as much as we can in downtown Salt Lake City."
Seven officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency were in Salt Lake City to help the repair process begin. Three more were expected to arrive later Thursday.
The big question now is whether President Clinton will designate Salt Lake a federal disaster area, which will allow federal money for the recovery work.
Clinton, however, on Wednesday told the nation Salt Lake City would not stand alone.
"The burden of recovery will be heavy, but it is a burden that the people of Salt Lake City need not carry alone. As they begin the difficult process of mourning, healing and rebuilding, our nation stands steadfastly behind them," Clinton said.
The storm hit the city at 12:50 p.m. Wednesday about two blocks southwest of the Delta Center before hitting power poles and some abandoned Union Pacific warehouses. It then slammed into the Delta Center, taking off part of the roof and ripping a northeasterly path of destruction for five miles.
Fred May, who is coordinating agencies for the state's Comprehensive Emergency Management Division, said enormous cleanup costs may qualify Utah for the federal funds.
"That's the big driving mechanism. We don't think we have much damage to water (systems), sewer or roads. But the disaster cleanup is extreme."
Those massive cleanup efforts spanned from 1000 West, where the tornado first inflicted damage, to the downtown area, over to Memory Grove and on up to the Avenues.
Seen from the air, the hopscotch nature of the storm leaves a startling impression.
Trees are toppled, but a tennis court is intact. Twisted steel posts lie in a parking lot, but a nearby flagpole stands arrow straight.
A tent set up to house the Outdoor Retailers Summer Market trade show was shredded and its contents whipped into a heaping pile of wooden shipping crates and sample merchandise.
In the debris-scattered hill above the Avenues, a roof lay nearly intact about 200 feet from its former home, while residents tried to cover the gaping hole with a tarp.
As one man put it: "This is the most bizarre thing I've ever seen."
He was echoed by a Salt Lake police officer who said: "It looks like a war zone."
Response to the crisis was phenomenal, Mayor Deedee Corradini said.
Within 30 minutes of the twister's touchdown, city police and fire crews had set up command centers and began tending to the injured. In all, about 500 police and emergency crews responded.
"Everybody came to the fore," the mayor said.
An estimated 500 law enforcement officers and emergency workers from up and down the Wasatch Front hurried to the city to offer assistance.
Rescue crews set up a triage and treatment center in the foyer of the Wyndham Hotel to assess the injured and prioritize ambulance sprints to area hospitals, Salt Lake City Fire Capt. Brian Dale said.
Most injuries were minor — cuts to heads, arms and legs, along with back and head injuries, and a broken thumb. Several people reported suffering chest pains.
Dale said he believes the majority of the injured came from the demolished tent that was located just north of South Temple for the Outdoor Retailers convention that had been due to open Thursday, but he said everything happened so quickly it's hard to tell.
"People were coming at us from all directions," he said.
At the request of authorities, much of downtown was shut down and evacuated Wednesday afternoon and most people seemed to have complied by late afternoon. Several posted hand-written signs on their doors blaming "Mother Nature" or "inclement weather" for early closures.
But on Thursday Corradini appeared on nationally televised morning new programs and said the city was "open for business."
"We're asking people to understand that we still do have some road closures, a crane over North Temple that needs to be cleared. . . . Be patient," she said.
Some roads in downtown and in the Avenues remained closed Thursday morning and only about a dozen residences were still without power.
At one point Wednesday, more than 3,000 homes and businesses were without electricity.
City crews worked through the night to clear debris from streets, knocking off about 3 a.m. to get some rest before tackling the job again at daylight, she added.
Police and other emergency officials also burned the midnight oil, listing buildings found to be structurally unsound.
By 10 p.m., authorities said, a complete checklist had been made of damaged homes.
Both Gov. Mike Leavitt and Corradini surveyed the damage from the air shortly after the tornado hit.
"You can look down into living rooms in the house," Corradini said at one point.
Leavitt assured everyone he would seek federal assistance to rebuild in the tornado's wake.
"Standing here in the calm of an August afternoon, it's almost inconceivable what happened," Leavitt told reporters gathered just outside the Delta Center, near the downed tents.
Franklin Elementary School, 1100 W. 400 South, suffered damage.
Trees and a fence were downed, a construction trailer overturned and some awnings blew off; two cars' windows were blown out and the playground was covered in debris.
Children at recess were quickly ushered into the building — the last child got inside just as an awning fell, said principal Dahlia Cordova.
"Kids were panicked, but the teachers were really calm and moved children away from the windows," she said. "We had classrooms of children crying and frightened."
Deseret News staff writers Alan Edwards, Max B. Knudson, Douglas D. Palmer, Lisa Riley Roche and Jennifer Toomer-Cook contributed to this story.