Severe Weather Moves Across Nation’s Midwest Leaving Seven Dead
Seven people lost their lives in Ohio this past weekend as severe storms moved through the Midwest, spawning an F2 tornado which is classified as having wind speeds between 113 and 115 miles per hour. All of the dead resided in Wood County when a tornado there hit during the night time hours which resulted in many people being left unprepared of the threat. Wood County is located just thirty miles south of Toledo.
In Millbury, a five year old was one of those killed. Four other residents who lost their lives were all adults. One person was discovered dead laying in a street in Millbury and two people were killed while traveling in their vehicle just outside Millbury. In neighboring Michigan, eleven people were hurt when a violent storm struck the state’s southeast corner, even damaging the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant which was quickly shut down. In the small town of Dundee, Michigan, ten injured residents were rushed to the local hospital after being injured by a storm that passed through at 3 a.m. Over 450 people staying at a water park facility nearby were forced to evacuate to a junior high school late at night.
This part of the United States often receives very heavy thunderstorms which gather momentum as they travel eastward across the Plains and unfortunately, tornadoes are not uncommon here. Every town and city in the five state area is equipped with tornado siren systems which alert residents when a tornado has been spotted. Storm ’spotters’ are sent out to keep an eye on the skies around townships, small towns and cities and quite often spotters are volunteer firemen and women who are donating their time to protect their homes and neighborhoods.
In Michigan’s Jackson County, the Sheriff’s office has decided to test the tornado sirens today after some of the warnings did not go off during the storm activity that passed through last weekend. There are a total of seven townships that reported problems with their sirens. Some of the county’s sirens were upgraded last year after failing to go off following a heavy summer storm. It is reported that a total of eight different tornadoes touched down in Michigan over this past weekend. Jackson County did not report any tornado activity but heavy rain and thunderstorms flooded streets, knocked over trees and cut power to hundreds. Luckily once the rain subsided, the water disappeared thanks to city drains.
