FREDERICKTOWN — The Tuesday evening storm was not a tornado or a microburst, according to Brian Hess, director of the Knox County Emergency Management Agency.
Severe damage in Pike and Brown townships was the result of straight-line wind, Hess told the News.
“The people worked together, it is a testament to their preparedness to work toward returning to normal,” Hess said.
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Trees were down everywhere across northern Knox County, many along roads and fell on power lines. One large limb fell on the hood of an SUV at the home Molly and Andy Mortimer home on Pealer Mill Road near the Richland County line.
High winds and golf-ball- size hail sent the Mortimers looking for safety.
“It was scary, we went to the center of the house,” said Molly.
A large limb on a tree next to their home broke off and fell on the hood of their sport utility vehicle. The wind ripped off part of their home’s roof and scattered it across the road. Another tree was damaged.
“We lost our grape arbor and garden but we are all safe,” she said of the wind with the deluge of water and hail that struck the area about 5:35 p.m.
Cathy and Mike Worley and their family on Koppert Road had a similar experience.
“We heard the wind roaring and headed for the cellar, it hit all at once,” Cathy said.
Two trees close to their home had the tops blown off and one landed beside the house. Another fell partially on the garage and covered three cars; none of which were damaged.
A bigger loss to Cathy was an apple tree that was uprooted. Planted by her mother, she said the apples are delicious. She was able to salvage the ripe apples from the fallen tree. A cherry tree and their garden were also damaged.
Amos Nisley of Koppert Road told the News his 2-month-old building was simply picked up and blown 100 yards down a hill where it scattered along the ground. The 100-foot-by-48-foot shop housed a metal fabricating business.
The Nunda Road area was also hard hit by Tuesday’s storm.
The Raber farm was heavily damaged. Roofing was blown several hundred yards to Mishey Road. The metal sheets of roofing hit a power line breaking a pole that hung over the road. Other metal sheets landed on the lawn of a home across the road.
The roof was blown off a barn on the Henry Nisley farm on Nunda Road. The sheet metal roofing was blown 200 yards down a hill against the fence along the road.
Along Mishey Road, Joe Porter’s home narrowly escaped the wrath of a damaged tree. The high wind snapped off a large pine tree about 10 feet above the ground. The tree landed along side the house.
Several corn fields along Mishey Road were flattened by the wind. The nearly ripe stocks heavy with ears were blown over. The most damage was in flat fields. Those fields on the down-wind side of a hill were spared.
The overriding impression of the damage from the short violent storm was the number of trees blown down. Several large trees along Nunda Road were blown over pulling the big root systems out of the ground and limbs were knocked off many trees.
The Energy Cooperative restored power Wednesday to roughly 1,000 members surrounding the Apple Valley substation, but nearly 1,200 still remain without power in the areas surrounding the Jelloway, Mount Vernon and Loudonville substations. The outages are due to a storm that passed through the area Tuesday evening which damaged transmission lines, three phase lines and took down numerous poles.
A total of 21 crews made up of a combination of Energy Cooperative, neighboring cooperatives and contract crews will continue to work around the clock until power is restored. Due to the severe damage to the lines, the best estimation of restoration is Saturday at noon.
Anyone experiencing a power outage is asked to call The Energy Cooperative’s Outage Reporting Service at (888) 535-5732.