Tornado Hits, 8 Injured

Damage severe as winds, rain clobber area

A fast moving storm unleashed raging winds and at least one tornado in the area early Saturday morning, damaging homes, businesses and a campground and leaving some without power for hours.

Eight people were reported injured in Auglaize County, according to Auglaize County Emergency Management Agency Director Troy Anderson. Seven of the eight injuries occurred at Arrowhead Lakes Resort at 14296 Cemetery Road in Wapakoneta where a tornado barreled through on a 17.2-mile path of destruction.

Most of the injuries appeared to be minor though one person was taken to a hospital, he said.

Mercer County EMA Director Mike Robbins said he was not aware of any injuries caused by the storm in his jurisdiction.

An EFI tornado packing wind speeds up to 110 mph touched down at 12:54 a.m. in Auglaize County near Wapakoneta and swept 3 miles north, northeast of Waynesfield in Allen County, the National Weather Service of Wilmington confirmed on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a severe thunderstorm formed in Celina, prompting NWS to issue a tornado warning at 12:44 a.m. for eastern Mercer County.

"It was called because they saw rotation in the radar," Robbins said.

Tornado sirens wailed in some areas.

"(The storm) was almost past Celina when that tornado warning went on so we did Mendon's, Celina's and Chickasaw's (tornado sirens) - basically everybody west of (U.S. Route) 127," Robbins said. "At this time they don't think we had a tornado. They think it was all very high end, straight line winds and I'm talking well over 70 miles an hour, probably."

As of Sunday afternoon, over 130 structures - a mix of homes and businesses - were reported damaged in Auglaize County. The commercial greenhouse at the junction of I-75 and U.S. 33 was completely leveled, according to the NWS.

"Those numbers are still going up," Anderson said.

Auglaize County commissioners on Saturday morning declared a state of emergency to potentially secure financial assistance for recovery, Anderson noted.

In Mercer County, Robbins estimated 20 to 25 structures were heavily damaged.

"There was a lot of damage in the county but it was mostly barns, outbuildings. There was damage to houses. I didn't see any major damage to any houses. It was more some siding off, some roofing shingles off, that type of thing," Robbins said.

Robbins does not believe a state of emergency will be declared in Mercer County, noting most of the people with property damage appear to be insured.

"Wind events don't normally get declarations unless it's like what we had in 2019, a big tornado," Robbins said. "Wind events are usually more insured than flood events. A lot of people don't have flood insurance so they qualify a lot quicker for that."

Anderson said all of Auglaize County was under a tornado warning early Saturday morning.

"The dispatchers hit the tornado sirens for the whole county and activated them all at once. So that did work and the notifications did go out across the radios and that as it went though until we lost power and other issues that went on because of the storm," Anderson said.

A tornado with a maximum width of 300 yards cut a 17.2 mile-path of destruction, wiping out a barn, tearing off a large portion of a warehouse building roof, snapping power poles, leveling a commercial greenhouse, blowing over semitrailers and causing other damage, according to NWS.

The tornado tore through the Arrowhead Lakes Resort where over 100 people were camping, Anderson said.

"That was one that got hit majorly in the path of that tornado," Anderson said. "The campers, as the storm hit and as fast as it was going, did not have a whole lot of time to do anything."

The Wapakoneta Fire Department headed an evacuation of the campgrounds after the tornado struck, Anderson said. Twenty-seven people were temporarily relocated to Americas Best Value Inn in St. Marys.

"We are actually still doing assessments today on the other sections of the county from the Mercer-Auglaize County line going north up to the Auglaize-Allen County line and then across over to Cridersville," Anderson said. "We have damages in there so we're assessing that section now."

The assessments are being provided to NWS.

"We're assessing that section right now and uploading the information and getting it to the weather service," he said. "Survey teams will look at that and look and see if we had a possible secondary tornado or if they were all going to be straight line winds from the outflow of the original storm that came through."

Over in Mercer County, Robbins, too, continues to assess the damage.

"Everything we saw looked like straight line wind damage," he reiterated.

Outside of Fort Recovery on Park Road between State Route 49 and the state line, a hog barn lost its roof and a machine shed "basically collapsed."

Additionally, 12 utility poles snapped near Northmoor Golf course on State Route 703, he said.

"On (State Route) 29 west of town there were poles leaning way over from the wind," he said.

Some areas of the county also went without electricity for periods and sections of roads were closed off as crews worked to restore power.

"At one time the whole village of Fort Recovery was out, plus some surrounding areas," Robbins said. "The village of Rockford was out, and the city of Celina was out, plus some outlying areas. But those were the three big population centers."