High winds rip off roof of town hall
Associated Press
EDGERTON, Ohio
High winds destroyed a historic town hall built in the 1880s, ripping down its bell tower and tearing a hole through the middle of it.
The storm cut power to thousands, toppled trees into houses and damaged the roofs of a handful of businesses late Wednesday night.
One firefighter at the town hall in Edgerton suffered broken bones when debris fell on top of him.
The National Weather Service is investigating whether a tornado touched down in the town of about 2,000 people that sits in the northwestern corner of Ohio. The weather service also was checking out reports of possible tornadoes in neighboring parts of Indiana.
, where a barn and grain silo were damaged.
The storm snapped power lines and trees across several counties, leaving behind damage in Indiana and through Toledo. There was some minor tree and property damage east of Toledo near where a tornado that hit on June 5 killed six people, ripped apart a high school and destroyed or severely damaged about 100 homes.
The Wednesday storm wasn’t nearly as severe, and the worst damage was limited to Edgerton.
Historical society members were just weeks away from signing a deal to buy the town hall so they could turn it into a museum.
“One hundred twenty-six years it made it through all the storms, and this one took it out,” said Darwin Krill, head of the Edgerton Historical Society.
The building at the center of town had an opera hall upstairs and once housed the village offices. It’s next to the fire department.
Debris fell onto the fire headquarters, forcing officials to close it pending a further assessment of the damage. The firefighter who was injured suffered a broken collar bone, leg and arm, said Teresa Kurtz, the town’s clerk-treasurer.
One wall of a building housing a flea market collapsed and several houses were damaged.
The storm also tore the roof off a machine shop in an industrial park, the mayor said. Winds also damaged the roof at Sauder Woodworking Co. in Archbold, where hundreds of workers were moved to tornado shelters for more than an hour, said Frank Chapa, a security worker.
Power outages affected up to 20,000 customers for a few hours, said Mark Durbin, a FirstEnergy Corp. spokesman. Most service was restored by Thursday morning.
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