MECHANICVILLE, N.Y. -- It's been 20 years since a tornado devastated the Mechanicville community. But the Saratoga County town still remembers it like it was yesterday.

“Everybody here has a fear of winds and tornadoes," said Kevin Connors, a Mechanicville insurance broker. "Every time there’s a talk on the weather that there might be a tornado warning, everybody in Mechanicville, and Stillwater, they get a little pit in their stomach.”

And who could blame them? Twenty years ago, Mother Nature unleashed unimaginable violence on Mechanicville.

“It turned completely black and it sounded like a freight train was going to blow through my house," said Connors.

If anyone knows the scope of the devastating impact that May 31, 1998 F3 tornado had on Mechanicville, it's Connors.

“For probably 10 straight days, we were here from 6 in the morning to midnight," said Connors.

Connors, one of the few insurance agents in town, received claim after claim -- about 400, in fact, from auto to homes to businesses like Hildreth's Restaurant.

“We lost a walk-in freezer that was in the back. We still don’t know where it went," said Patrick Hildreth, the co-owner of Hildreth's Restaurant.

A staple in Mechanicville since 1963, Hildreth’s was in the middle of it all that fateful day.

“It broke the air pockets on all the windows and ripped the electrical off the wall," said Hildreth.

But Hildreth's Restaurant and the rest of Mechanicville has since recovered.

“It was the biggest thing that happened in Mechanicville, but luckily, it didn’t turn into a tragedy," said Hildreth.

Everyone in the town made it out alive following that wild whirlwind that lasted just minutes -- a miracle in Mechanicville, with a touch of perserverance.

"The community recovered, and the community helped each other, and we got through it," said Connors.