Huron Emergency Management Teams Assess Severe Storm Damage

NORWALK, Ohio — Teams from Huron County Emergency Management were out assessing damage on Tuesday after powerful storms rolled through the area on Monday.

At least 18 structures were reported to have damage ranging from minor to severe. The most serious was on Rule Street where a massive tree crushed the kitchen of a home.

Mike Palmison’s daughter was in the home, where he says she had just left the kitchen after washing the dishes.

“My daughter looked out the window as the tree was going by her bedroom window, and the next thing I know I get a phone call and they are screaming, ‘The tree’s in the house, trees in the house,’” said Palmison.

On Tuesday he was waiting for an insurance adjustor to arrive after boarding up what was left of the demolished kitchen.

“Gone, completely, all of the food we just bought, refrigerator. A full sized refrigerator is now, we jokingly call it the micro fridge because its just crushed. All of the cupboards that were on the other side with all of the food just completely gone,” said Palmison.

Across the street another tree uprooted tearing down power lines, making the street impassible. Storm damage crews were nailing a blue tarp onto the roof of a multi-family home.

Across Norwalk the damage was scattered, although nearly every yard was littered with branches and leaves.

Leonard Youngblood was using a chainsaw to help remove trees from neighbor Neil Creary’s yard on East Main Street after as many as four large trees toppled on and around the house.

“I was at home when it hit, and boy it came down ferociously, the wind came down in sheets, rather than just rain it was in sheets,” Youngblood said when the fast moving storm hit the winds seemed to change direction.

Others also initially thought it was a tornado.

“We heard like glass cracking and stuff, we thought it was a tornado coming the way everything was acting,” said Arielle Shults who ran to the basement of her East Main Street home along with other family members.

Surveying the scattered severe damage around the community on Tuesday Shults was convinced it was not the work of a tornado.

“Probably just a really really extreme storm really high winds, bad and the rain was horrible, yeah it was bad,” added Shults.

Huron County Emergency Management Director Jason Roblin on Tuesday told Fox 8 News that the damage would not even come close to qualifying for a disaster declaration.

His office was sharing the information it was gathering with the Red Cross to try and get help to anyone who might need it.

Roblin said most, if not all, of the wind damage around the community should be covered under property insurance.