Heavy rain, high winds inflict pain in region
Akron Beacon Journal
July 11, 2006
A thick fog had settled onto the valley Monday evening as Larry Rogers solemnly watched his business float away.
“I just retired, so I was slowing down,” he said. “I guess I’m really going to slow down now.”
Rogers has owned and operated Pine Run Woodwork for 25 years.
When storms in Ashland County caused major flooding Monday, Rogers could only watch as waters from a nearby creek lifted his shop and slammed it into a nearby bridge.
“I had some stuff in there waiting to go to a gallery in Philadelphia,” he said. “I guess it won’t make it there.”
Severe thunderstorms moved slowly southward through Northeastern Ohio Monday, leaving a trail of power outages and severe flooding in their wake.
Without power were about 3,000 FirstEnergy Corp. customers in Mogadore, Akron and Massillon. By 7 p.m., that number had dropped to about 500 each, but about 500 homes were still in the dark in Akron, Barberton, Alliance, Kent and Fairlawn Monday night.
The National Weather Service said the storm, capable of producing penny-sized hail and winds up to 58 miles per hour, was earlier spotted moving at 30 mph through Cuyahoga Falls.
Between 2 and 3 p.m., the Akron Fulton International Airport recorded more than an inch of rain with wind gusts reaching 35 mph. By 5 p.m., nearly an inch also had fallen at the Akron-Canton Airport, with a gust of 37 mph near 3 p.m. and the heaviest rain lasting the next hour.
“We have a lot of reports of some pretty good rainfall in some of the thunderstorms,” service meteorologist Martin Thompson said.
Most damaging to the majority of communities were storm winds.
Caroline Brumbaugh and her husband, Robert, were sitting in the family room at the back of their Northwest Avenue home in Tallmadge when they heard a loud noise Monday afternoon.
“When we came out to look, there was the tree, uprooted. I was dumbfounded,” Brumbaugh said. “It happened so fast. That tree has to be more than a hundred years old. I guess I’ll call the insurance company to see what I need to do.”
Similar gusts also claimed a large garage on Baier Circle in North Canton.
Particularly hard-hit in Summit County was Mogadore, where the city street department rallied to clear at least five trees from power lines, including one that threatened lines in front of Hopkins Lawver Funeral Home, Police Chief David Fowler said.
“We lost the majority of the town’s power due to several telephone poles over the substation which had broken because of the wind at about 2:10 p.m.,” he said. “We were out of power probably close to three hours.”
Trees on South Cleveland Avenue and Mogadore Road also blocked roadways and severed wires. Services were restored about a half hour after the rain subsided, he said.
But city basements continued to suffer through the night as fallen limbs blocked water inlets, flooding residential yards.
Runoff from lakes and streams also caused severe damage at Mohican and Malabar Farms state parks in southern Ashland County.
The Horovitz family of four had just checked into a cabin at Mohican when they heard rumor of a flood. They were about to evacuate to the nearest restaurant when the water came.
“I saw a wall of water,” said patriarch Brad Horovitz of Brimfield Township. “I saw that, and I started running.”
At both state parks, heavy rains and high winds uprooted trees, washed away bridges and tore roofs from park buildings.
Louie Andres, park manager at Malabar Farms, said two buildings had lost their roofs and 30 or more trees had been uprooted.
At Mohican, the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office evacuated campers near the Pleasant Hill Lake Dam.
While no injuries had been reported in any local community, some area campers lost tents, gear and even automobiles when the valley flooded.
A severe thunderstorm watch issued by the National Weather Service for Summit, Stark, Portage and Wayne counties ended at 6 p.m.
The weather service predicted a continued chance of showers and thunderstorms this afternoon to Wednesday morning, with temperatures in the 80s and similar forecasts until Friday, Thompson said.
Whether the storms could be as destructive as Monday’s, however, he could not say.
“Can’t discount it,” he said.
