A 10-year-old boy drowned in Warren, and an F-1 tornado struck Youngstown's East Side.

A 10-year-old boy drowned in Warren, and an F-1 tornado struck Youngstown's East Side.
VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT
The 4.65 inches of rain that fell Monday, as recorded at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, was the most rain in a 24-hour period since such records started being kept in 1943.
Added to what fell earlier this month, the Mahoning Valley has had 7.76 inches of rain so far this month, good enough for No. 9 on the all-time rain accumulation list for the area, just beating out August 1980 when 7.74 inches of rain fell, according to the National Weather Service.
We've still got a ways to go before we get to the record of 10.66 inches recorded in June 1986, but more rain is forecast for the rest of the week, said Tom King, a meteorologist with the NWS in Cleveland.
It's supposed to rain every day through Thursday, be sunny Friday, and back to rain for the weekend, he said.
"The additional rain could result in further flooding," he said.
Mahoning and Trumbull counties are under a flood watch for today, and the NWS has declared a flood warning for the Mahoning River.
Death and destruction
The rain that fell Monday left a path of destruction and tragedy.
Ten-year-old John Keytack drowned in a ditch at Clermont and Cornell avenues N.E. in Warren.
An F-1 tornado hit Youngstown's East Side, with winds between 75 and 110 mph, damaging several business, and ripping the roof off Youngstown Electric Service Inc., and the Ziegler Tire Co. on Poland Avenue.
Seventeen trailers in Bel Air Mobile Homes Park off Belmont Avenue in Liberty Township were tossed around about 7:30 p.m., according to Fire Chief Michael Durkin.
Durkin said two were complete losses, five are uninhabitable and 10 trailers were slightly damaged.
One man whose trailer was destroyed was treated at a Youngstown hospital for an broken arm.
Unlike the afternoon storm that spawned a tornado in Youngstown, the evening storm appears to have hit the trailer park with 70-90 mph downburst winds, said William M. Comeaux, meteorologist in charge at the Cleveland office of the NWS, based on his preliminary observations after sundown Monday.
Jim Haynie, a park resident, said he was looking outside when he saw the trailer turn over and slam into an adjacent trailer.
"It just flipped like a pancake," Haynie said.
"Gone with the wind," a neighbor quipped.
Pulled out injured man
Aura Adams III pulled the injured man from under the trailer after a tree crashed through a wall of his own double-wide trailer.
Patti Bartlett, park manager, said a shed was lifted and carried across Route 193. Residents were without gas this morning.
An emergency shelter was set up by the Red Cross at Liberty High School after 16 units were flooded at Liberty Square Apartments.
About 20 people stayed overnight.
Durkin said the water was up to a foot deep.
Clayton Booker, who lives with his former wife and their four children in one of the apartments, said the water rushed in quickly.
"Within 15 minutes, our apartment was completely flooded," Booker said, noting that at first he thought a neighbor's shower had overflowed about 12:30 a.m. today.
The water was nearly waist-deep in the apartment complex parking lot.
In Hubbard, North Main Street at the city limits was closed to traffic because of high water.
In the afternoon, one lane of West Liberty Street was shut down at the high school.
When Hubbard's tornado siren sounded about 7:30 p.m., council members canceled a scheduled meeting.
911 center flooded
While emergency crews were working at the trailer park, they learned that the Trumbull County 911 Center In Howland was being flooded and would have to be evacuated. Operations were moved to a trailer at the Howland fire station, from which the staff continued to work today.
Workers said they have fielded hundreds of calls of flooded basements and downed trees.
Rescue crews used boats to get people from flooded homes along Yankee Run Road in Brookfield Township.
A spokesman from the police department said at least five roads throughout the township remained closed this morning because of high water.
Also in Brookfield, the Trumbull County Sanitary Department's sewage treatment plant was flooded, the spokesman said.
Crews from the Trumbull County Engineer's Office, meanwhile, were monitoring water levels on state Route 46 at Salt Springs Road in Weathersfield Township to determine if the area needed to be closed again.
The intersection was closed for two days two weeks ago because of heavy flooding.
Also closed because of flooding was a section of Main Street in Niles, near Federal Street.
A police dispatcher there said residents from Buckeye Mobile Home Park on Difford Drive were evacuated because "trailers were floating."
Comeaux estimated that rainfall ranged between 2 and 4 inches Monday in the Mahoning Valley, depending on the location.
Power outages
About 66,000 Ohio Edison and Penn Power customers in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Mercer counties lost power Monday evening because of lightning strikes and high winds that damaged substations, brought down power lines and snapped utility poles, said Paul Harkey, Ohio Edison's area manager. As of 10 a.m. today, power was restored to about 55,000 people, he said.
Of those without power, about 9,000 are in Mercer County, 600 are in Trumbull, fewer than 1,000 are in Mahoning, and 700 are in Columbiana County.
"We've got 100 to 150 people from outside the area working to restore power along with our local crews," Harkey said.
Trees and branches blocked roads and did minor damage to houses in Niles and Lordstown. No injuries were reported.
Roads inundated
"We have a lot of flooded roads, which is causing a lot of cars to be stuck," mainly in Brookfield, but also in Vienna, Fowler and Hartford, said a Brookfield police officer who did not want to be identified.
In Western Pennsylvania, high winds accompanying a midafternoon thunderstorm knocked down trees across a widespread area of the Shenango Valley, closing roads, taking down power lines and causing some structural damage.
The Mercer County 911 Center fielded more than 1,000 emergency calls between about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday, when the storm hit, and 10 p.m.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or serious structural damage, although the center did have reports of some trees falling on house roofs.
Hermitage closed sections of Buhl Farm Drive, Wakefield Drive, Maple Drive and Hazen Road while debris was removed. Virginia Road and Neshannock Road were also blocked for a time.
Shenango Township closed Campground Road, Pulaski-Mercer Road, Hewitt Road and others, again because of downed trees.
Farrell authorities reported minimal storm damage.
The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Mercer County, saying that Doppler radar indicated a tornado at 1:41 p.m. four miles west of Farrell and moving at 35 mph toward Farrell, Hermitage, Mercer, Sharon, Sharpsville and Stoneboro.
Downed trees
Trish Yake was cleaning the front bedroom window of her new home at 890 Bechtol Ave., Sharon, when the large oak tree in her front yard suddenly toppled over, crushing her black Pontiac Grand Am parked in front of the house.
Several trees also came down on Sharon Country Club golf course and in nearby Buhl Park, just across the line in Hermitage.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said that rushing water resulted in extensive damage to several roads in Mercer County and that they are closed or partially closed today for repairs.
Methodist Road, east of Greenville, and Osborne Road, north of Greenville, were partially washed out.
Lake Wilhelm Road north of Clarks Mills was down to one lane, and Carlton Road was down to one lane on both sides of the French Creek Bridge because of washouts.