NORTH FAIRFIELD, Ohio — Many homeowners were left without power and cleaning up the mess Friday, less than a day after a tornado bringing powerful rain, hail and wind hammered parts of Huron County.
In Peru, John Smith woke up to part of a massive tree toppled in his front yard and resting on a cable line. To the left of his home, several more trees lay scattered on his property.
The power went out even before the strong wind picked up, he said. It was enough for him to move his wife and grandchildren into the basement. When he saw the debris flying around and hitting his front door, it was the first time he could remember he felt the need to take cover in the basement.
“From the force of the wind evidently. Something I’ve never seen,” he said.
That’s saying a lot from a man who has spent his whole life in the small town of Peru.
“All of a sudden you could hear a lot of wind. You could hear trees and stuff cracking and things flying around,” Smith said.
On Friday, the only cracking came from clean up and there was plenty of it to go around. Smith spent a good part of the day cutting down the huge tree in front of his home.
“It tells me that it was a different wind,” he said.
Wind strong enough to bring down massive trees, power lines, even pieces of a home about 10 minutes south in North Fairfield.
Even the getting to the small town was difficult, with several closed roads due to downed lines and leaning power poles.
“My son was out back and he said, ‘Get in the basement! Get in the basement!’” Chris Roswell remembers.
Chris and Kathy have been through plenty of storms over the years. But none they could remember that left their town of North Fairfield looking like it did Friday. Most properties along the main road seemed to be impacted by Thursday’s storm.
The Roswells said the town siren went off at one point and their grown son told them he saw a tornado, which prompted the urgent shout to take cover. And it didn’t take long for them to realize the wind had torn off part of their tin roof.
Rain poured inside soaking the floor and damaging other parts of the home. When they woke up, they also discovered part of the brick chimney had crumbled.
“It just amazes me with it did with this tree,” he said, inspecting the large tree in front of their home that was torn up and had a chunk of their roof wedged in it.
For now, tarps will have to do to keep out the water, as they and others continues to deal with power outages and the difficult work of cleaning up.
“Now, we’re just waiting to figure out how we’re going to heat something up to eat,” he said.
Neither the Smiths nor the Roswells reported hearing of any injuries. The National Weather Service says the EF-2 tornado produced winds as high as 115 miles per hour.
