BARBERTON, Ohio — As portions of Northeast Ohio recover from tornado damage, areas in Summit County are cleaning up after flash flooding.
In the light of the day Friday, crews were surveying the damage left behind after heavy rains Thursday night led to flooding in parts of Akron, Barberton, and Cuyahoga Falls. While some power washed sidewalks and parking lots, other people were stuck in the mud.
Meanwhile, Akron police and fire say they worked together to rescue 25 people during Thursday night. Crews were deployed in a community rescue vehicle that came alongside stranded vehicles and drove occupants to safety.
First responders say dangerous conditions like this can come out of nowhere, so it's important to be cautious any time you see standing water on the road. While you might think it's just a puddle that you can make it through, the water can become catastrophic for your vehicle.
That's what Akron rescue crews saw repeatedly -- and why they jumped in to make those rescues.
“To us, to be able to serve our community in that capacity, and we could see it on the faces of our people when we got to them to be able to give them the help they needed. It was an amazing experience," said Akron Fire Department Deputy Chief Scott Pascu.
Nearby, Canyon Brook Drive is an access point for the Timbertop Apartments in Akron's Merriman Valley. Portions of that road are now gone after the rain as a heavy flow of water rushes alongside it. Crews are working to deal with the damaged infrastructure and damage throughout Summit County.
But there's still a lot of cleaning up left to do.
In Barberton, Roger and Tammy Mears were working off three hours of sleep, clearing up debris from their basement and trying to salvage the memories left after heavy rains.
"We lost everything," Roger Mears lamented.
Thursday evening, Roger was in the basement after noticing water seeping inside. His wife came to give him a hand, but the situation took a turn for the worse.
Water was quickly filling the area, and the Mearses started fearing for their lives as the wall started collapsing. They got out just in time, but they lost decades worth of memories.
"I lost stuff from my parents, I lost everything for all the years we've been together," Roger told 3News. "We've been together for almost 40 years, and we lost a lot of stuff that we had together."
Video footage from their outside camera shows them up against a powerful force of water as it gushed out of the basement for nearly an hour. While the basement is filled with mud and debris, it isn't the only damage, as their front yard also collapsed.