At least one person has died after severe weather moved through the central Ohio region on Tuesday.
The person died in Roseville, a village that lies in Muskingum and Perry counties. News about the fatality was confirmed by Gov. Mike DeWine during a Tuesday afternoon press conference.
The National Weather Service says a possible tornado may have hit the north side of Columbus when a strong line of storms blew through central Ohio Tuesday morning, toppling trees and knocking out power to thousands.
Early afternoon, Ackerman Road on the city's northwest side was closed as crews removed trees. Traffic lights hung askew, barely clinging to the wires that held them.
Across Olentangy River Road, trees blanketed historic Union Cemetery. Many had been uprooted, while others seemed to have split in half.
Cemetery General Manager Jimmie Blevins was at the cemetery's office building when the storm rolled through. The men who had been trimming around the headstones had just left because the wind had started to pick up.
"It got so dark I couldn't see, and the wind was blowing. I opened up the door, and all I saw was trees going everywhere, uprooting out of the ground," Blevins said.
He headed to the basement. When he returned, he found massive branches and whole trees draped over the graves.
Blevins said the cemetery will remain closed during cleanup, which could take weeks. He said he last remembers something like this happening in 2012, when a storm destroyed more than 100 trees in the 220-year-old cemetery.
"And we've lost quite a bit again this time," he said.
The path of damage — marked largely by shattered trees — stretched east into Clintonville.
Water pooled on North High Street in front of Lucky's Market, where employee Sarah Rush tried to affix a "use other door!!" sign to a trio of orange traffic cones.
"The front door literally got sucked off and shattered out front so there's glass all down there," Rush said. "Then we have roof damage, and we also have skylight damage...part of the roof blew off into our retention pond."
The market, however, still had power, unlike its neighbor, Derive Brewing Company. There, friends from Mantis Metalcraft welding helped owner Peter Steffes install plywood where the brewery's front window had been.
"The glass like shattered and buckled and it was pretty scary," said Steffes.
The brewery was closed, but Steffes and some employees had been brewing beer just feet away. Steffes lost the whole batch when the power went out. He said the brewery would remain closed through the rest of Tuesday.
Damage stretched further into Clintonville's neighborhoods, with tree branches littering Olentangy Street and East Kelso Road.
The National Weather Service reports widespread damage
A National Weather Service spokesperson in Wilmington cited a video the Ohio Department of Transportation posted of a car being flipped over on Interstate 71 near the Weber Road interchange.
The spokesperson also said high winds caused damage in Dublin.
The spokesperson said the weather service may send out surveyors later this week to determine if there was a tornado.
The weather service recorded a wind gust of 82 MPH at John Glenn Columbus International Airport. It issued a tornado warning for Madison County Tuesday morning, but not for Franklin County.
The high winds toppled trees, blew the roofs off buildings and knocked down power lines throughout the region.
The city of Hilliard reported a railroad crossing at Avery Road was closed. A train stopped because of downed trees.
The city of Upper Arlington posted a photo of a tree that fell on top of a police cruiser near Riverside Drive and McCoy Road.
The Bexley mayor's office reported some traffic lights weren't working.
AEP Ohio reported more than 130,000 customers were without power throughout its service area at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Matt Bennett, AEP Ohio's director of operations, said it is going to take some time to restore power because of the widespread damage and outages.
"We're gonna need some patience from our customers, cause this is going to take a couple days, and we understand that that's not great for them to hear, but there's an extensive amount of damage," Bennett said.
Bennett said a lot of poles and wires are down. Out-of-state crews are arriving to help AEP Ohio restore power, some from as far away as Oklahoma.
Bennett said people need to stay away from downed wires and anything touching them. He said call 911 or AEP Ohio to report downed wires.
Columbus city officials respond to damaged homes, rec centers and downed trees
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther addressed reporters in the early afternoon Tuesday, noting the “devastation” the city saw after the storm. He said if this was a winter storm in January, the severity would’ve prompted a Level 3 snow emergency.
“It’s important to think about all the devastation we've seen thus far. We are going to see several more storms over the next couple of days,” Ginther said.
More rain is in the forecast this week and shortly after the press conference, a second round of heavy rain hit central Ohio.
City officials noted that river levels remained below the threshold for the city to activate flood walls near the Scioto River. As of Tuesday afternoon, the river was at 13-and-a-half feet. The flood walls get activated when the river reaches 24 feet.
No major injuries were reported, according to officials, but they didn’t rule out any being reported.
Interstate 71 and Parsons Avenue were some of the streets closed briefly due to remove fallen trees and power lines.
Ginther said city and state workers were also told to leave downtown Columbus.
The city is setting up an emergency shelter on the south side with the help of the American Red Cross.
South Side residents deal with major damage to homes, trees and community center
City officials said “ground zero” for damage in Columbus was concentrated east of Lockbourne Road on the south side. The area west of Parsons Avenue near Morrill Avenue and Hinman Avenue was scarred with downed trees and structural damage.
The Barack Community Center had most of its white roof torn off, leaving only patched plywood in its place.
To the east, Hinman Avenue was blocked by several large trees. One tree fell across Parsons Avenue, which crews began breaking apart by noon.
One tree behind a home on Morrill Avenue fell on top of a camper, crushing the vehicle.
Willard Rubel and his wife Misty Rubel live in the camper, which is in their son’s backyard.
Willard had just left for work when the tree fell, but Misty thought he was still inside. She was relieved when Willard answered his phone when he was driving back home.
"I wasn't going to go work. And then I just, something told me just go on to work. If I wasn't going to work it would’ve probably killed me,” Willard Rubel said.
He pointed out the tree crushed the part of the camper where his bed was, where he was likely to be laying down during what was supposed to be his day off.
Misty said she fell halfway down a flight of stairs inside her son’s home when the storm hit, leaving her with a large purple bruise on her back.
Georgeina Dotson, a homeless woman, was walking to a corner store with her husband when the worst of the storm hit the area. She says she was lifted off of the ground by strong winds, but her husband caught her and pulled her down.
“We've walked around and seen all of it. This is sad. It's depressing. I just can't walk and see no more,” Dotson said.
Dotson said the storm blew away the tent the two were living in. She has doubts the city will do enough to help people like her in need of shelter.
The city is setting up a shelter for people like Dotson at the Scioto Southland Community Center.
The National Weather Service hasn’t confirmed that a tornado touched down, but Dotson and the Rubels questioned why a tornado watch and warning weren’t issued.
“All we heard was like the rain come down and then the wind started blowing real hard. They just heard it whistling. I've heard a tornado before. I lived in Florida, so I know what they sound like and that was definitely a tornado,” Dotson said.
Neither Dotson nor the Rubels reported hearing sirens. The Franklin County Emergency Management Agency and Homeland Security told WOSU the sirens aren’t activated unless a tornado warning is issued.
The National Weather Service office in Wilmington declined to comment because of the storms occurring statewide Tuesday.
