Storms leave damage, injuries

September 18, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

WOOSTER, Ohio

Rescue workers began assessing the damage Friday after tornadoes and high winds blew across Ohio, flattening buildings, flipping mobile homes and injuring more than a dozen people.

The National Weather Service confirmed at least two tornadoes were part of Thursday’s onslaught: one with winds as high as 90 mph that touched three counties south of Columbus, tearing off parts of roofs and knocking over a semitrailer; and another of roughly the same intensity that damaged barns and a few homes near Farmerstown, in the heart of northeast Ohio’s Amish country.

A lab building was reduced to a pile of rubble and a barn was flattened at Ohio State University’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster, about 50 miles south of Cleveland. The campus was littered with upended trees, their roots sticking up in the air. One of the greenhouses had collapsed in a tangle of twisted metal and shards of glass.

Mauricio, Espinoza, a university employee, was on campus when the storm hit at 5:30 p.m.

“I was inside getting ready to go home when the power went out,” he said. “I tried to go outside and then I heard the wind and the shattering glass outside. So I just closed my door and got under a desk.”

The storm felt like an earthquake, Espinoza said.

Witnesses told The Daily Record they saw a funnel cloud at 5:30 p.m., when most employees had left the buildings.

“My entire lab is gone,” said Heping Zhu, a U.S. Department of Agriculture engineer who had been working out of the lab. No injuries were reported.

Weather service teams from West Virginia went to southeast Ohio and were expected to confirm that one tornado touched down in Athens County and another in Meigs County, said John Sikora, a forecaster in the Charleston office. He said winds might have exceeded 100 mph.

Gov. Ted Strickland planned to visit both counties later Friday to survey the damage.

American Electric Power reported on its website that nearly 19,000 Ohio customers had no electricity at midday, down from 33,000 who had been without power following Thursday’s winds and lightning.

In southeast Ohio, Athens County Commissioner Lenny Eliason said there were 13 reported injuries, with five people remaining hospitalized, including two who were taken to a trauma center in Columbus. He did not know their names or conditions.

WSYX-TV quoted Sheriff Pat Kelly as saying no one was seriously hurt.

Eliason said that officials were not aware of anyone missing, but that 10 teams were assessing damage, which was heaviest in York Township, outside Nelsonville, and in The Plains, just outside Athens.

It was estimated that 15 homes and six mobile homes were destroyed, and that several businesses were damaged.

The storm tore air- conditioning units off Athens High School and hit its football field, blowing off the press box and the roof of the concessions booth and damaging stands, Eliason said.

The storm interrupted a girls soccer game in The Plains and forced players to scramble to safety inside the school.

Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Sedwick, who was on duty at the soccer game, said he was moving people into the school when he saw a cloud and a circular wind pattern. He said a brick wall was blown down.

He said he and firefighters pulled at least two people from damaged trailers.

In eastern Ohio’s Tuscarawas County, Dover Fire Department Capt. Brooks Ross said he saw roofs blown off various buildings in nearby New Philadelphia. County Sheriff’s Detective Capt. Orvis Campbell told The Times-Reporter of Dover-New Philadelphia that downed wires temporarily trapped some tractor-trailer rig drivers inside their vehicles.

A number of newspapers were hit by storm damage. The Athens Messenger building sustained heavy damage, and Friday’s paper had to be printed elsewhere.

The Logan Daily News reports that its printing facility in Athens County was damaged, causing a delay in delivery of Friday’s edition. And The Times-Reporter’s production plant lost power for most of Thursday and into Friday but was able to publish its morning edition on time by moving operations to a sister newspaper in Canton.