Canfield city, township reflect on July tornado

By ROBERT CONNELLY

rconnelly@vindy.com

CANFIELD

Canfield city and township along with Ellsworth Township experienced an EF-1 tornado July 8.

In the days after its storm, Canfield Township officials talked about wanting to change the township’s rules regarding emergency situations. Months later, there are still specifics to be worked out, but the desire to change those still is there for township officials.

Canfield Township Trustee Marie Cartwright and other township officials talked about putting together an emergency-response policy, including timetables for debris pickup, a little more than a week after the storm.

Cartwright said those talks are continuing and they would reach out to Canfield city; the county sheriff, who handles police work for the township; the Canfield City police; the Cardinal Joint Fire District for Canfield; and the Canfield schools along with the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center off Palmyra Road.

“We were very fortunate to get the debris cleaned up pretty quickly on the road right-of-ways and the roads, and that was due to the help of the county and the city of Canfield as well as our own public-works department that was very diligent in getting areas cleaned quickly,” Cartwright said.

Reflecting on the storm, Canfield Mayor Bernie Kosar Sr. said, “I was very impressed with the way people [and surrounding municipalities] showed up.”

In terms of changing city laws, Kosar said, “What was out there that day seemed to work well.”

However, he added, if things needed to be tweaked, the city and township would work together. Kosar reflected on the help that Canfield received from the Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency, specifically remarking on how much that county agency’s director, Dennis O’Hara, helped with the storm.

Both Kosar and Cartwright reflected on the fact that no one was injured in the summer twister. There were downed power lines and trees uprooted, but roads were cleared by city, township and county officials in the hours after the storm. Three homes had significant damage from the storm, one in Ellsworth and two in Canfield Township.

The city and township used public work crews in both municipalities to help with the cleanup of power lines and downed trees. “It was humanity at its best,” said Kosar.