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WEATHER/from A1 •to his classic cars. The ears all needed work, and he didn’t have insurance on any of them, but several were destroyed, he said.“I heard on the scanner that there was a tornado and that it hit a bam. I didn’t know it was mine,” he said, referring to the bam he rents. While some cars, like the 1955 Chevrolet, may be salvageable, others, like the 1959 Edsel with a crossbeam right down the center, were destroyed.Baughman said the first car he bought in high school, a 1972 Plymouth Satellite, was among those damaged.Kevin Baumgart lives next door to where the bam stands, and said he saw the tornado come over his neighbor’s house.“The rain was coming down so hard it started coming through my window and hitting the other side of the room,” he said. “It was coming across the top of the trees, and for some reason, it went up over the house and down. ”The owner of the bam, Don Settlemire, drove from his Spencerville home to survey what was left of his bam. He did not have an insurance policy on the bam, he said.“It carried the bam east and to the south,” he said.Straight wind damageA few miles away in the 3200 block of Greeley Chapel Road, strong winds plucked several large trees from the ground. Perry Township Police and other emergency workers were scattered throughout the township guarding downed power lines.An estimated 5,000 customers in the Lima area were without power, according to Shelly DiMattio, spokeswoman for American Electric Power. The worst outages were along Woodlawn Avenue, Cole Street, Shawnee Road and Eastown Road, she said.It will be at least until the end of today before all power is restored, she said, adding that crews will be out all night, weather permitting.A Lima woman was injured Tuesday when the storm caused a tree to fall on the van she was driving. Terri Morris, 36, was taken to St. Rita’s Medical Center, where her condition was unknown late Tuesday night.Lima Police Patrolman Eric Mericle said Morris was driving south in the 100 block of North Cole Street near West Market Street at about 7 p.m. The tree struck the rear of the van when she was stopped at a light. There were no passengers in the van. Mericle said the tree snapped off at about seven to eight feet above the ground, causing severe damage to the van,Lima Firefighter Sean Carpenter, who was on the scene, said Morris did not seem to be severely injured, but that if anyone else had been in the back of the van, they would have been.“It hit just right behind the driver’s compartment. The van was totaled,” he said.Lima Fire Platoon Chief Morris Martin said the department received numerous calls about trees and power lines down, mainly in the west end of the city. He said there was notJIM SABIN • The lima NewsSteve Armentrout steadies a fallen tree limb while Dick Graymire carves it into smaller pieces to clear the driveway of Shawnee Manor Nursing Home.much serious damage.“Things are getting back to normal,” he said On 11th Street just west of Central Avenue, a tree landed on top of a house trapping a woman inside. Emergency workers managed to get into the house to free the woman who was not injured.Along Fort Amanda Road, crews worked to remove a tree that fell on a car and blocked the road just blocks from Selis’ house. A tree about four feet thick snapped just above the base and fell across the road. The Shawnee Township Police Department said one person in the back seat was injured. A branch smashed the roof on the left rear side, and a passenger was in the right rear side, next to a car seat, a sergeant on the scene said.The Shawnee Township Fire Department didn’t have any names available, but said the injury wasn’t too serious.“The way the guys were talking, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been,” said Paul Harris, a volunteer firefighter.The Allen County Sheriff’s Office also reported calls on trees and power lines down,Shawnee and Perry townships being the most heavily hit. Sgt. Tom McNamara said there were some roads blocked off for a while Tuesday night because of fallen trees and power lines.Shawnee Township Fire Department Platoon Chief Dick Oder said 20 extra people were called in on top of the seven who normally work because of the storm.“We’ve got whole subdivisions without power,” Oder said. “I don't have any numbers. We still got crews everywhere.”At Shawnee Manor Nursing Home, employees Steve Armentrout and Dick Graymire cut fallen limbs and removed a brick-mounted sign advertising the Heart Center of West Central Ohio that had been broken off its moorings. Debris littered the area like confetti after a parade.Russ Decker, director of the Allen County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said the tornado was likely an F0 or FI, the two weakest varieties of twisters. At the time he couldn’t confirm that a tornado touched down, but said witness accounts supported it. He did verify winds reaching 90 mph, and said the Westminster area had the most power outages.Decker said the storm, which hit the southern part of Allen County the hardest, caused the most damage he’s witnessed from a single storm.“We’re fortunate. It could have been much worse with those kinds of winds,” he said.No damage was reported at BP Chemicals or the other companies in the industrial complex.The National Weather Service verified winds at 70 to 80 miles her hour. Power lines and minor damage were also reported throughout the region, but no injuries were reported.Officials at the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office and Kenton Police Department said there was significant damage, with power lines and trees down throughout the county and city.“We’re overwhelmed,” said a dispatcher with the sheriff’s office, adding that there were reports of power outages throughout the county.Auglaize County also had power outages.“They’re busy trying to get the power back on,” said Sgt. Russ Bailey of the St. Marys Police Department. “Some sections of town are coming back on line. A good majority of city was out of power.”The northern half Logan County was dark because of the storm, a county sheriff’s office dispatcher said between 911 calls.“Half the county’s power is out,” she said. “The lake is the worst-hit area. Indian Lake and Russell’s Point,” she said Reporter Beth Jokinen contributed to this report.
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The Lima News
Lima, Ohio, US
Wed, Aug 27, 2003
Page 3
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USA 18 May 2024
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