*Attached video: Mentor storm damage
CLEVELAND (WJW) — The National Weather Service as of Friday evening confirmed five tornadoes damaged homes and utilities in several Ohio counties on Thursday night and into early Friday morning.
As of Friday evening, the earliest confirmed tornado started in Ottawa County.
NWS confirmed the EF-1 tornado traveled more than 4 miles from Ottawa County to Sandusky County. It started at 11:08 p.m. on Thursday and lasted about 7 minutes.
The 100-yard-wide tornado began near South Nissen and West Deno roads in Elmore, moved southeast, crossing the Portage River, and ended in Lindsey, according to NWS.
Storm winds reached 110 mph, damaging a nursery greenhouse, uprooting or blowing down several trees, scattering broken limbs onto homes, and snapped power lines, according to NWS.
Erie County
The next confirmed tornado started at 11:47 p.m. in Berlin Heights, Vermilion Township, in northeastern Erie County.
It lasted about a minute, uprooting trees and sending branches tumbling onto homes. One large limb partially destroyed a home near Mari-Dor Beach Cottages, according to NWS.
It ended in a rural area to the southeast, less than a third of a mile from where it started.
Cuyahoga County
An EF-1 tornado recorded later was confirmed in Cleveland.
According to the National Weather Service, the tornado happened between 11:59 p.m. Thursday and 12:02 a.m. Friday.
Peak tornado winds hit 110 miles per hour. The tornado was measured to be 0.79 miles in length and 150 yards in width.
According to the NWS, the tornado began near East 71st Street and Chester Avenue. It ended near East 89th Street and Euclid Avenue.
Some homes, trees, light poles and the Calvary Church received extensive damage, according to the NWS.
Lake County
A third tornado confirmed in Mentor reportedly happened less than an hour later.
The 150-yard-wide tornado spun up at 12:04 a.m. in Willoughby, Lake County, and traveled more than 3 miles to Kirtland Hills in five minutes, NWS confirmed on Friday.
It started just west of Dartmoor Road near Mentor Avenue, downing large trees. It then moved east, bringing trees down on homes along Stockbridge and Middlesex roads. Tree-related damage was also seen across the Great Lakes Mall property.
The tornado then shifted northeast, bringing down power lines near the intersection of Johnnycake Ridge Road and Fairview Avenue. The storm ended just south of Donald E. Kruger Park.
Nearly 9,000 FirstEnergy customers were still without power in the city as of Friday afternoon. For the vast majority of them, service isn’t expected to be restored until Aug. 30, according to the utility’s outage map.
“Residents are strongly encouraged to make provisions for a long-term outage, especially in the hardest-hit areas,” reads a Friday afternoon update from city officials.
As of 2:19 p.m. Friday, the majority of the city’s roadways were passable. Electric workers were powering down tangled utility lines so that city workers can clear roadways of debris.
Drivers are encouraged to keep off closed roads and treat non-functional traffic signals as four-way stops.
The Mentor Senior Center, 8484 Munson Road, opened early Friday as a community shelter. It will remain open until 5 p.m. on Friday, then reopen from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
The city next week plans to announce a plan to clear storm debris from residents’ yards. Anyone who has branches larger than 6 inches will have to get their own contractor.
Trumbull County
Then, in Trumbull County, a 100-yard-wide EF-0 tornado was seen at 12:35 a.m., NWS confirmed. It traveled nearly 2 miles from Champion Heights to Cortland, lasting 2 minutes.
It started east of Mahan Denman and Hyde Shaffer roads, snapping the branches of large trees. It then moved east through corn fields, crossing Thompson Clark Road.
North of there, it damaged sides, shingles and roofing of several homes, and caused one home’s car port to collapse. It then continued east, parallel to Hyde Shaffer Road, before ending near North Park Avenue.
