Storm, high winds lash Lorain County lakefront Tuesday

Downed power lines and fallen trees marred properties across northern Lorain County after a strong storm moved in off Lake Erie Tuesday evening. Damage was widespread and left more than a third of the county without power, according to FirstEnergy's outage map at 8:30 p.m. The National Weather Service of Cleveland said the bulk of the damage was caused by strong winds that topped out at 60 mph in Vermilion and 59 mph at the Lorain County Regional Airport. "We had an area of intensified thunderstorms move across Lake Erie and then into the Cleveland Metro area and continuing southwest toward Youngstown," NWS meteorologist Karen Clark said. "There was widespread wind damage, especially from Lorain County eastward." Northern Lorain County communities took the brunt of the storm damage, including Lorain, Vermilion, Amherst, Avon Lake and South Amherst. More than 40 percent of Lorain's FirstEnergy customers were without power Tuesday evening, with the majority of those on the city's south and west sides. In south Lorain, winds tore through Oakwood Park, ripping up or splitting the park's namesake trees and bringing down power lines throughout surrounding neighborhoods. Lori Garcia, public property manager, said her whole department was out clearing roadways where trees and debris blocked access in about 30 locations throughout the city, including a number of trees down along portions of East 31st Street. Clark said it is not uncommon to see a relatively small area within a larger storm sustain heavier damage. "It's common for us to see the damage right on the lakefront, but in situations like this where we have a large area of thunderstorms you can get things called microbursts which are fairly localized areas of very strong winds," she said. "You'll see those pockets where it's usually 2 to 5 miles or less of heavier damage. They are just winds that come down out of the storm blowing in one direction." City workers can only clear trees that are not in contact with power lines, Garcia said. If power lines are involved, FirstEnergy crews must move the downed lines before crews can clear the trees. She said utility poles were toppled, bringing down lines and trees pulled down other lines. Garcia expected her workers to be out all night clearing roadways as best they could, and chopping up and hauling away the debris in the coming days. Lakeview Park South suffered damage, with a tree striking its gazebo, she said; and Elmwood Cemetery lost about three trees, but no headstones were damaged. "The majority of the city is still without electricity. We did have one traffic light come crashing down, thank God a car wasn't under there," Garcia said. "We had two other intersections where the lights were hanging about 4 feet over the road." Even City Hall felt the impact of the storm, with one of the windows into Council chambers blown out by the winds. City Hall and many of the city's buildings ran on generator power Tuesday evening. The window had been damaged by a rock Monday. Lorain Police are investigating, Chief Jim McCann said. While Lakeland Glass made repairs early on Tuesday, those repairs did not survive that evening's storm, Garcia said. Remarking on the estimated 60-plus mph winds that whipped through the city, Garcia said she never wanted to see a tornado in her lifetime. Lorain Fire Chief Chris Radman said he did not know how many calls his department had received Tuesday evening, but said he had to bring firefighters in to help dispatch from Central Station after 911 became overwhelmed. Lorain fire often tries to keep its trucks in districts during storms, he said. For example, Station 3 handles calls on the south side, while Station 4 stays on the east side. But dispatch through the county was sending trucks across the city, prompting Radman to call in personnel to mediate between 911 and the stations. He said the bulk of the calls they received were for downed trees and utility lines. Farther east along Lake Erie, Sheffield Lake took significant damage from the storm as well. Sheffield Lake fire had more than 30 calls Tuesday related to live wires or trees obstructing roadways, Lt. Wes Mariner said, five of which were for trees causing structural damage to homes. Kenilworth Drive in Sheffield Lake was hit hard, with trees taking down power lines completely. One resident who lives across the street from a downed power line, George Tylka, said he looked out from his garage to see sparks flying down the street. "I heard it go down with a big wallop," Tylka said. "It scares you, it gets your fear reactors going." Around 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sheffield Lake fire responded to a fire in a home on Groveland Drive in Avon Lake, which Mariner said probably was caused by a downed power line. Avon Lake Fire Chief Jeremy Betsa said that his crews took at least 35 calls about storm damage and discovered many additional incidents while out on those calls. "It was a significant weather event for sure, probably one of the worst ones I've seen in quite a few years," Betsa said. "Probably the worst we've seen since Hurricane Sandy came through a number of years ago. We had significant damage throughout the entire city." Along with how widespread the storm was, Betsa said the speed with which it came in made the initial response difficult. "We were taxed for a good half hour, 45 minutes maybe, but after that time we were able to sort of catch up and handle calls as they were coming in," Betsa said. "Whenever you have a storm come in that quickly everybody has some initial issues processing calls." Elyria fared better than its northern neighbors, but Fire Chief Joe Pronesti said the storm was still a significant issue. Pronesti said his department answered around 30 calls about storm damage. "We didn't get it nearly as bad as the lakefront and east of Cleveland did, but we did get busy there for a short time," Pronesti said. In Avon, trees and power lines were downed across the city, Avon Police Public Information Officer Jim Drozdowski said in an email statement. First Energy reported 7,754 outages for customers in Avon — about 75 percent of the city's FirstEnergy customers. Avon fire and Avon police did not respond to requests for comment. Despite how significant damage was across the county, no city or fire personnel that The Chronicle spoke to on Tuesday night reported any serious injuries stemming from the storm. Damage was even more extensive to the east of Lorain County, Clark said, as areas like Parma and Cleveland saw even more damage. Winds at the Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland topped out at 79 mph. Clark said that Weather Service meteorologists would be out surveying today to determine if any of the winds had formed tornadoes. On the brighter side, better weather is on the horizon for Northeast Ohio as residents and communities continue cleanup efforts into today. "There are still a few light showers in the area, but the threat of severe weather is over," Clark said. "We do have some dry weather moving in in the coming days, which will also see a break from the heat and humidity we've been experiencing." Watch the video at https://youtube.com/shorts/1UIR47JnNcI?feature=shared. Reporter Richard Perrins contributed to this report. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.