Funworld February 2008

Winds of Change

Owners start over after tornado annihilates family entertainment center.

by Mike Bederka

Lisa Elliott was on the phone booking a party when the warning sirens started to blare. Moments later, she heard what sounded like the roar of a freight train or an airplane engine.

Then, it hit.

“The ceiling tiles flew out, and I could see daylight,” says Elliott, office manager of Fun Zone Skate Center. “I jumped under the desk and held my breath until it was silent.”

A 157-mile-per-hour, F2-class tornado had just dive-bombed onto the Montgomery, Alabama-based family entertainment center. Afterward, Elliott climbed through piles of rubble and joined the hunt for survivors. “I heard babies crying,” says the 17-year veteran of the facility, recalling six inches of storm water rolling down the parking lot.

Lisa and Rocky McIlwain, owners of Fun Zone, were driving to IAAPA Attractions Expo 2006 in Atlanta when Elliott called about the destruction. They didn’t believe her. “We thought she was teasing us,” Lisa remembers. As Elliott’s voice became more frantic, the couple realized the gravity of the situation. They turned around and sped back to their property, now in twisted ruins.

Over the course of a seemingly endless return trip, the McIlwains received regular updates on the recovery effort. “You can’t think about what’s gone,” Lisa says. “You can just think: Is everyone OK? That was the only thing on my mind. What about the kids? What about the kids?”

The news improved with each passing mile marker. By the time they got back, rescuers in the driving rain had found all employees and guests. Thirtyone children and 11 staff members were inside when the tornado entered the southwest corner of the building. Thanks to some well-placed concrete slabs, most escaped without even a bump or a bruise. The worst injury: 14 stitches for an employee’s son. “That was it,” says Lisa, still not totally believing the fact a year later. “What a miracle.”

After the Storm
The McIlwains couldn’t salvage much from the FEC. Except for the rock wall, a virtual roller coaster, a few games, and some tables and office equipment, it was a total loss.

Rocky says the cleanup effort started quickly. The tornado hit on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2006. By that Friday, they had a demolition crew unloading their equipment. They worked 30 days in a row, including Thanksgiving, from dawn to dark to get the job done.

Community members helped in any way they could. Fun Zone had become a large part of the Montgomery social scene, and some took the devastation particularly hard. The FEC had just started a much-loved after-school program for 110 kids. “They broke into tears when they saw the place,” Rocky says. “All of a sudden, it’s snatched out from under them. It broke their hearts.”

Lisa and Rocky thought about rebuilding the facility. They even went ahead with an architect and drew up some blueprints. However, three months of fighting with the insurance company bogged down any plans. “We got the complete runaround. They kept dragging their feet with the inspection,” Rocky says. “They wanted to see if the concrete and steel were faulty. Bottom line: The insurance company was not big enough to handle something like this. We were dead in the water.”

Then, a bit of luck came their way. Owners of an FEC 90 miles south in Dothan, Alabama, approached the McIlwains again about the property they had for sale. (They had contacted the McIlwains prior to the tornado.) Lisa and Rocky realized they might be out of commission for a year if they rebuilt the Montgomery facility, while tweaking a pre-existing FEC would only take a few months and cost less money. So that’s what they did. “We had to get back to work. We didn’t have any money coming in.” Lisa says. “Thank goodness there was a center for sale so close that was similar to ours. What if? We would have been out of a job.”

They took possession of the Playground on April 1, 2007, and the new Fun Zone Skate Center opened to the public June 15. The Montgomery property is currently on the market, much to the disappointment of many area residents. The McIl-wains get e-mails almost daily begging them to come back to the neighborhood, Lisa says, and many old customers still make the long drive down to visit. “It would be a great thought [to reopen it], but it’s an impossibility financially,” Rocky admits.

They had to borrow money for the new place, and any cash made from the sale would help pay off the debt.

Lessons Learned
More insurance on the equipment side would have alleviated much of their money woes, the owners concede.

“You never think you’re going to lose every-thing in your building,” Rocky says. “You never think your life is going to turn 180 degrees in a few seconds.”

“Please don’t skimp on your insurance,” adds Lisa, urging other FECs. “We did and took a hit for it.”

They won’t make the same mistake again, but they realize what’s done is done, and they’ve moved forward with their lives. Rocky and Lisa bought a house two miles away from the Dothan property, and their six kids changed schools. “We basically threw our roots down here,” he says.

Elliott still lives in the Montgomery area, now only working two or three days a week at Fun Zone. She and her loved ones will never forget the incident. “My husband tells me how lucky and blessed we are to be together,” she says.

This whole experience made Lisa appreciate more the day-to-day operations of the FEC business. “You take it for granted after a while,” she explains.

Mike Bederka is a contributing writer for Funworld. He can be reached at mbederka@iaapa.org.