Wednesday, May 27th, 2015
Storm topples trees, damages barns in Auglaize County
By Shelley Grieshop
NEW BREMEN - A wind-tossed camper, damaged barns and felled trees dotted the landscape in Auglaize County on Tuesday afternoon after a storm barreled through the area.
"We had a debris pattern and it looks like we had straight-line winds," Auglaize County Emergency Management Agency Director Troy Anderson told the newspaper this morning. "Unless I get some better photos to show something else, I think it probably was straight-line winds."
No weather-related injuries were reported in the Grand Lake area.
The storm appeared to pick up steam after leaving Mercer County and entering Auglaize County about 4:45 p.m., he said. Several power lines and poles came down, and trees and branches were scattered around, Anderson said.
A 25-foot-long camper parked at 05061 Lock Two Road, New Bremen, was "picked up and thrown about 75 feet," he said. It landed on the ground as a mangled pile of debris, he added.
Sustaining the most damage to a single property was a farm owned by Lee Katterheinrich at 06099 Southland Road near New Knoxville, he noted. High winds "took down a pole barn" and a large portion of the roof on a barn built in the 1800s, he said.
"There was a debris field there just shy of a mile long from the northeast to New Knoxville," Anderson said.
Powerful wind gusts over 50 mph also ripped a 60-foot-by-90-foot section of roof from the American Legion building in New Knoxville.
By the time the storm moved through the Moulton area it no longer packed high winds, Anderson said.
Mike Robbins, EMA director of Mercer County, said shingles were ripped from several rooftops and a few electric wires were down but the damage was sporadic. He recorded wind gusts up to 30 mph and estimates they may have reached 45 mph or higher to the north and east of Celina.
"The damage was not really widespread. There were pockets," Robbins said.
He warned the same weather scenario could occur later today with the threat of scattered thunderstorms.
"It's been a slow year. This is only our second (thunderstorm) watch this year," he said.
