Celina cleanup starts

CELINA - As residents in northwestern Celina cleared away broken glass, busted doors, roof shingles and other debris blasted about their properties during the previous night's tornado, city crews on Tuesday were busy hauling that wreckage away and re-establishing power.

Neighborhoods, some resembling war zones with homes smashed to bits, were abuzz with the sounds of chainsaws and generators and coordinated movements of homeowners, family members, friends and even strangers taking preliminary steps on the long road to recovery and normalcy.

"The local contractors have been out helping," Celina Mayor Jeff Hazel said. "They're tarping the rooflines that have holes in it. They're boarding up the broken-out windows and glass to protect that structure while it gets assessed by their insurance companies for the rebuilding."

People piled tree limbs, pieces of wood and remnants of their once-secure homes to the curb.

"We're going to clean all that for them and take that away," Hazel said. "We're not leaving that for the homeowner to do. They have enough pain as it is."

Hazel reported at least 40 homes were significantly damaged or completely destroyed. Some were ripped away from their foundations.

"I look at this as being very personal because it happened to people's houses, their homes," Hazel said. "They were closing the doors and locking up and people crawling into beds at the end of a holiday."

Worse still were the injuries and one death that occurred during the storm.

Hazel said 81-year-old Melvin Hanna was killed when a parked car was blown into his house.

"The fatality is probably the hardest thing for me to deal with personally," Hazel said. "He was already in bed for the night asleep, and literally he did not see what was coming. It was probably a blessing for him, but it hurts our hearts as a community. We mourn with the family."

Seven people also were injured during the powerful tornado. Six were taken to Mercer County Community Hospital in Coldwater and one to Joint Township District Memorial Hospital in St. Marys. One was later flown by emergency helicopter to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton and another taken to St. Rita's Medical Center in Lima, Hazel said.

"I think a couple actually had surgeries planned today to repair some things," he said. "Three of them were serious (injuries) but not life-threatening."

Hazel said he's grateful that no other lives were lost in the storm.

"But I will never minimize when we do have a fatality," he quickly added.

Hazel emphasized that residents had heeded advance warnings by taking shelter in their basements or elsewhere.

"With our emergency siren system, it worked like it was supposed to last night. People took shelter," he said.

Hazel believes many took the warnings seriously and acted promptly because of the Nov. 5, 2017, tornado, which caused significant property damage in the city's eastern corridor made up of commercial and industrial businesses.

"They knew immediately, 'I've got to go somewhere to protect myself and my family,' " he said. "They went to basements. They went to the bathroom. They went to (an) inside closet away from glass. Those are the things that make so much difference on whether you wake up the next day or not."

The tornado caused a citywide blackout for some time. As of Tuesday afternoon, though, only 15% of town was still without power.

"There's a lot of houses not damaged. They have no power because it's on a circuit. We have to disconnect all the damaged houses first."

Once those homes are disconnected and utility poles are reinstalled, power should be fully restored by today or so. Hazel said.

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