PLYMOUTH, Ohio — It's been one week since multiple tornadoes wreaked havoc across the state of Ohio. The town of Plymouth in Richland County continues recovery efforts after a twister hit their area last Thursday.
The National Weather Service reported that the EF2 tornado that went through Plymouth had winds estimated at 120 mph, and was on the ground “for slightly over 10 miles” with a max width of 250 yards.
"It was great up until that day," said Chad Stumbo, who lives on West Road in the southwest area of Plymouth. "Now, it's just hectic. Just slowly trying to get things moving to recover, see what we can do to get moving forward."
The tornado ripped panels off his home and blew out multiple windows, uprooted a large backyard tree, blew away his garage and wrecked two of his vehicles. Stumbo fears both vehicles are totaled.
He told 3News it's been a slow process waiting for insurance to evaluate the cost of the tornado damage so that he can start making home repairs.
He's thankful that he, his wife and neighbors are all safe, but is still in shock.
"It's just devastating," Stumbo said. "I mean, I don't have near the loss that people down the road from me do or across the street. I can only imagine what they're going through. Right now, this looks cosmetic to me and I'm hoping that's all it is. That can be fixed, but there's places down the road that have already been told that they're going to have to rebuild, and I don't know what I would do in that situation."
3News reached out to Richland County Emergency Management Thursday for an update on their recovery efforts.
"I can tell you clean-up efforts continue throughout Plymouth Township," said Director Rebecca Owens. "There was a lot of debris throughout the fields, along the roads, etc. All property owners reported having insurance and they are waiting to hear more from their insurance companies."
Also on Thursday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced that the state has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to conduct a damage assessment on impacted homeowners, renters and businesses for the 11 Ohio counties impacted by the tornadic severe storms on March 14, including Richland County.
Six FEMA damage assessment teams will be inspecting and assessing the damage in all 11 Ohio counties on March 26. The purpose for the Individual Assistance Preliminary Damage Assessments is to identify the type, and extent of disaster damages to homes and businesses and assess whether or not federal resources are needed to supplement local and state resources.