Winds of up to 75 miles per hour whipped through Lorain County on Wednesday night, toppling trees and power lines ahead of a severe thunderstorm. The winds even tipped over a plane at the Lorain County Regional Airport.
This home on state Route 83 took a big hit from the wind that came through Wednesday.
Kristen Schuler, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Cleveland, said the thunderstorm hit Lorain County shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday.
The weather service issued a tornado watch until 5 a.m. but canceled it about 2:30 a.m. Thursday.
Tom Kelley, Lorain County emergency management director, said the worst of the storm’s damage occurred in Eaton and Carlisle townships. Kelley said he did not hear any reports of anyone injured during the storm.
Marlene Oliver, who lives at the corner of Chestnut Ridge and Bender roads in Eaton Township, said she thought a tornado might have touched down, because damage to her house and yard appeared to be in a straight line.
She described what sounded like “a big motor on the ground, and it caused the ground to tremble.”
“I thought the windows in my bedroom were going to implode,” Oliver said.
She said the storm damaged the fence around her pool and ripped shingles off her roof. Also, a tree in her front yard had been completely uprooted.
“I have a crater in my front yard now,” Oliver said.
Kelley said the National Weather Service would be surveying the damage Monday morning to determine whether a tornado had in fact touched down, but from looking at it himself, he said he didn’t think it was a tornado.
Gary Mortus, area manager for Ohio Edison, said 1,100 customers in Lorain County remained without power early Thursday evening, including 675 in Elyria. He estimated that about 3,000 customers in the county had lost power because of the storm. Mortus said all Lorain County customers should have electricity by about 11 a.m. today.
Spokesman Mark Durbin said Ohio Edison crews were working as quickly as possible to restore power to everyone.
“It might end up being well into tomorrow before everyone’s back on,” Durbin said Thursday.
A helicopter crew from Haverfield Aviation Inc. of Gettysburg, Pa., was contracted to survey damage to FirstEnergy power lines, according to employee Jeff Fluharty.
Fluharty, who landed late Thursday afternoon, said there was not widespread damage because of the storm.
Lorain County sheriff’s Capt. Jim Drozdowski said the Sheriff’s Office helped out with several road closures. Also, he said some tents blew over at the Lorain County Fair and the wind knocked over one vendor’s stand, breaking some glass shelves.
Elyria police Sgt. Lee Frank said the department responded to 18 calls for service related to the storm, including seven reports of downed power lines and two unconfirmed reports of blown transformers. Other calls included downed trees and material in the road.
The strong winds even overturned a Piper Cherokee single-engine plane at the county airport.
“There was severe damage,” said George Fuge, manager of the fixed-base operation at the airport.
He said the plane, which was tethered, is owned by Paul Armbruster, who could not be reached for comment.
The plane was removed by a wrecker from Dunlap’s Garage while crews from the Oberlin Fire Department stood by in the event of a fuel spill.
Contact Kiera Manion-Fischer at 329-7123 or kfischer@chroniclet.com.
Staff writer Cindy Leise also contributed to this story.
