Storm leaves 13,000 without power; more rain expected

A brief but powerful thunderstorm swept across Lorain County early Tuesday evening, as winds in excess of 70 mph caused extensive damage and left thousands without power. Lorain County and all of Northeast Ohio were placed under a severe thunderstorm warning through 9 p.m. Tuesday by the National Weather Service of Cleveland, and a second line of storms was hit the county later Tuesday evening. The worst of the earlier storm, which hit at around 5:15 p.m., lasted only a few minutes in most of the county, but visibility dropped to near zero as heavy rain fell, streets briefly flooded and even some large trees were ripped out by the roots. Douglas Kahn, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said that during the earlier storm, the highest wind gust recorded at the Lorain County Regional Airport was 64 mph, while wind gusts in excess of 70 mph were reported in the North Ridgeville area. The second line of storms, Kahn said, had less severe winds but heavier rains and a heightened risk of flooding. Rain began to fall again at around 7:30 p.m. "It seems like most of the storms this evening, especially in (Lorain County) will be mainly a heavy rain threat," Kahn said. "The earlier storms sort of worked over the surface environment, but there are still favorable thunderstorm conditions in the mid to upper levels of the atmosphere. The potential for severe winds is much lower." In Amherst, two massive trees fell just a few dozen yards away from each other on North Main Street, with one shattering a smaller tree and bringing down a utility pole and power lines at West Martin Street, and another crashed through the middle of the garage of a home on the 200 block of North Main Street. "We had a dozen calls and we are on another one now," Amherst Fire Chief Brandon Dimacchia said at 7 p.m. "We canceled training for tonight with another storm line coming in, so we just want to be prepped for it. We just ordered some pizza and we are going to hunker down in the station so we are ready to go." In Elyria, multiple crashes and downed power lines were reported, particularly along Garden Street, where at least five high voltage transmission poles were broken or blown down. Stewart's TV and Appliance on Cleveland Street posted on social media that part of the roof blew off. More than 13,000 customers were without power as of 7 p.m. throughout Lorain County, according to the FirstEnergy outage map. The largest outage areas appear to be in North Ridgeville, where 6,774 customers were without power, accounting for more than 40 percent of customers in the city. Avon had 2,356 outages and Eaton Township and Elyria each had about 1,200 outages. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.