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A farm at 1660 Southland Road, New Bremen, suffered significant damage.
By ERIN GARDNER and ABIGAIL MILLER
newsroom@dailystandard.com
Two tornadoes touched down on Tuesday night in Mercer and Auglaize counties, resulting in massive structural damage but no injuries or fatalities, local officials confirmed.
Two funnels touched down in Mercer County with one traveling into Auglaize County. A separate funnel formed but didn't touch down in Auglaize County.
The tornado in Auglaize County was classified as an EF2 with an approximate wind speed of 130 mph, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington.
The damage in Auglaize County was isolated to residential homes and farming structures, according to Auglaize County Emergency Management Agency Director Troy Anderson.
"Last night, we had a large, wedge-shaped tornado on the ground coming out of Mercer County into Auglaize County just outside of Southland Road," Anderson said. "We videotaped it as it's coming across for confirmation, showing it actually impacting several of the homes (and farms), doing significant damage in that area for 4 to 5 miles."
Cleanup began Wednesday at a house at 1944 Southland Road, New Bremen.
On Southland Road, the storms affected two residential houses, did minor damage to six homes, major damage to two homes and "destroyed" three homes, according to Anderson's preliminary damage estimate.
The estimates did not include unattached buildings or farming structures.
"That one went over the county line into Auglaize County," NWS Wilmington meteorologist Christine Aiena said. "So this one was right along Guadalupe and Southland roads west of New Knoxville. That is where the damage was there. It began in Mercer County and then it extended into Auglaize County."
Although the storms destroyed structures, Anderson said it's miraculous no one was injured. He was especially concerned with the time of night the storms hit, adding that most people were home so the injuries could have been substantial.
Anderson said the agency did have a visual of a secondary funnel over Grand Lake at the same time the tornado made impact.
"We were just fortunate enough that the one over the lake did not touch down coming in where it would have impacted the city of St. Marys," he said.
Disaster cleanup is ongoing.
This farm on State Route 219 just east on Burrville Road had several sheds loose their roofs in Tuesday evening's tornado.
In Mercer County, an EF2 tornado with wind speeds up to 120 mph began northwest of Fort Recovery and traveled 8 miles into Coldwater.
Mercer County EMA Director Chad Willrath said much of the damage reported in the county was west of Coldwater on State Route 219 near Erastus Durbin, St. Peter, Siegrist-Jutte and Burrville roads.
"A lot of the damage is agricultural buildings, barns, that type of thing," Willrath said. "There were a couple of or three houses that had more than a little bit of damage. I think there was one major and one minor between the two spots. There were several considered affected. That could be siding missing, shingles missing, that type of thing. There's only maybe one that might not be able to be lived in right away."
Willrath said that as of 10:55 a.m. Wednesday, there were about 225 people in Mercer County without power.
Cleanup has already begun at a farm on Southland Road, New Bremen.
"Midwest Electric crew was going to take a break around 6 p.m. tonight," Willrath said. "They were going to take like a 10 hour break and then come back and try to finish it up. They thought maybe they had about 24 hours of work to get everything back to where it needed to be."
Just north of Celina, NWS Wilmington reported a rainfall of 1.15 inches, Aiena said.
In Darke County, an EF1 tornado with top wind speeds of 110 mph began west of Greenville, continuing through the city and then east of the city, per the NWS in Wilmington.
There is widespread damage throughout the city of Greenville, per a Darke County Sheriff's Office news release. Storm damage was also reported in the area of Hillgrove-Southern Road and State Route 502 west of Greenville. One minor injury was reported and no fatalities.
"The path of storm continued east of Greenville through Greenville Township and Adams Township to the Miami County line along Childrens Home Bradford Road area," the release states.
Structural damage occurred at the Greenville High School football field, and numerous trees were snapped or uprooted within the Greenville Union Cemetery. There is expansive tree damage throughout the city, per NWS.
In downtown Wapakoneta, NWS in Wilmington reported rainfall of 0.74 inches of rain.
The area has been affected by a series of tornadoes over the past three months.
In March, multiple tornadoes touched down in the area, resulting in at least a handful of injuries, heavy damage to barns, homes and other structures and a citywide power outage in Celina.
Anderson said the tornado in Auglaize County was comparable to the March 14 tornado.
The roof was torn off a barn at 8698 Guadalupe Road, New Bremen.
Lumber is strewn about the farm on Southland Road.
