Storms cause destruction

Winds howled, rain poured, thunder clapped and tornado sirens blared throughout the four-county area Thursday. Severe storms and at least one tornado ripped through the region in the late evening. An EF-2 tornado with peaks winds of about 130 mph touched down at about 6:50 p.m. near Ohio 19 and West Hetrick Road south of Oak Harbor in Ottawa County, according to the National Weather Service. An EF-2 is the third-highest of six possible tornado severities — classified as "strong" with winds ranging between 111 to 135 mph. The tornado tracked east-northeast over a span of about three-and-a-half miles, crossing over South Woodwick, West Hetrick, South Mudcreek and South Muddy Creek North roads before ending at about 7 p.m. The tornado had a max width of about 200 yards and damaged five homes. "A few of these residences lost roofs," the weather service stated. "The tornado also destroyed seven barns and up to 10 cattle fatalities were reported." Henry Perrin, a longtime friend of Jeff and Renee Webb, helps clean up the Webb's property after a storm on Friday, June 16, 2023, in Salem Township. Register photo/ERIN CALDWELL The weather service conducted surveys Friday in Ohio to assess storm damage and confirm tornado reports. As of Friday evening, there were no other confirmations of tornadoes in Ottawa, Sandusky, Huron or Erie counties. It's possible additional tornados could be confirmed after press time Friday evening. The weather service did confirm a tornado near Toledo and another in Ashland County. Other parts of the four-county area suffered damaging winds, hail and flash flooding as a result of the storm system. Authorities reported no deaths resulting from the storms and one person injured as a result of a car crash in Huron County. The storm also caused the Ohio Turnpike's westbound lanes to close due to downed power lines in Sandusky County. As of Friday evening, there was still a large traffic backup caused by the closure, according to data from the Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission. Scores of area roads were closed Friday as crews cleared downed power lines, trees and other debris. Assessing the damage County sheriffs and emergency management personnel got to work Thursday and Friday clearing debris and accounting for damage from the storm. Tim Jonovich, director of the Erie County Emergency Management Agency, reported that the Vickery and Castalia areas suffered serious damage with power lines down, poles snapped and large amounts of tree limbs and debris. He urged the public to stay away from downed power lines and avoid driving through water on roadways. Erie County Sheriff Paul Sigsworth said substantial damage from Thursday's storm could be seen throughout Margaretta Township and in Groton Township. The sheriff praised area fire departments and road crews for their "continuous hard work" in their storm damage response. Damage at Jeff and Renee Webb's property on West Hetrick Road in Salem Township on June 16, 2023. Register photo/ERIN CALDWELL Fred Petersen, the Ottawa County Emergency Management Agency director, said he witnessed at least eight homes with major damage or completely destroyed. A majority of the damage occurred on Hetrick Road from Ohio 19 East to Woodrick Road, the area of the tornado's flight path. Art Mead, director of the Huron County Emergency Management Agency, said there were high levels of damage in the village of North Fairfield as well as Monroeville and Bellevue. Sandusky County Sheriff Chris Hilton and county emergency management director Lisa Kuelling also reported significant road closures and damage, particularly in the eastern portion of the county. Thousands of people were without power in the four-county area Thursday and Friday, according to data from FirstEnergy, who anticipated restoring power for many by late Friday night. 'Lucky to be alive' Jeff and Renee Webb were at their home on West Hetrick Road in Salem Township when the storm came through. Jeff knew there were storms closer to the lake but noticed some dark clouds to the north. He was upstairs relaxing when he heard some noise. Renee was downstairs. "I thought (Renee) was vacuuming. Then it kept getting louder and louder," Jeff said. "I looked out the window and saw both barns being torn apart. "I just knew it was a tornado. It sounded like a freight train." Jeff needed to get downstairs. As he rushed, wood boards were coming through the house. "I didn't think I was going to make it to the basement," he said. Jeff made it, and he joined his wife downstairs for about 20 minutes before coming back up to survey the damage. They've lived at the property for about 26 years. Their 150-year-old barn was destroyed, a steel building was completely mangled, trees were snapped, and siding was torn off the house. "We're lucky to be alive," he said. "You can always rebuild." 'The worst I have seen' The roof of this grain silo is blown off and pieces are all over the area following Thursday's storm. Tandem Media Network photo/JOE CENTERS Huron County communities were picking up the pieces on Friday morning. Many roads in the south were closed due to flooding and downed trees. Mead said the North Fairfield area got hit the hardest. Early Friday, thousands of Huron County residents were without power. The village of North Fairfield was hit especially hard by the storm. "North Fairfield got absolutely destroyed," Mead said. "Ripley (Township) got destroyed and kind of like the whole area around it." Mead said teams from the National Weather Service were visiting the area Friday to assess the damage. Firelands Electric reported that, during the height of Thursday's storm, the cooperative lost power to five substations and one metering point due to a loss of transmission power provided by both FirstEnergy/Ohio Edison and American Electric Power (AEP), which feed the cooperative's substations and local distribution system. Just after midnight, American transmission was restored, which energized Firelands' Boughtonville substation and Greenwich metering point. At that time, FirstEnergy/Ohio Edison advised Firelands that transmission power feeding its Fitchville, New London and Steuben substations would likely remain without power until midday Friday, at the earliest, due to multiple broken 110-foot transmission poles. Firelands' crews worked throughout the night clearing trees and power line damage across its system. Crews were able to backfeed power from another transmission source to restore service to a majority of their member-consumers receiving power from the cooperative's Steuben substation. Firelands Electric Cooperative still had roughly 5,200 member-consumers without power Friday morning. This included two substations, Fitchville and New London, a portion of its Steuben substation that could not be back-fed from another transmission source, and also included a portion of their system in Mifflin Township, Richland County. Firelands Electric worked to address roughly 30 broken poles and widespread damage to its system, especially in southern Huron County. The cooperative received mutual aid from Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative and North Central Electric Cooperative, who will assist with the extensive amount of system damage. Fairfield volunteer fire Chief Ed Eden said it was bad. "This is the worst I have seen it," said Eden, chief since 1995. "Disaster area. And, (Thursday) night, it was a worse disaster area. We had a guy on (Ohio) 61 who drove up on a tree. We did not know how badly he was injured. We got the call and we were probably 45 minutes getting there, cutting our way to get to him." Eden said the man got his arm slammed by the car door and may have dislocated his shoulder. "He did not have to get hauled," Eden said. "We had to cut our way. Two or three of my guys (one with a payloader and one with a skid loader) came in. We went here. We went there. Trees were in the road. They pushed all of that and got that cleaned. "I've never seen anything like it. I would say it (the storm) was the better part of an hour. I came up here even before it rained. It let loose. I had people coming in here from the trailer park."