City crews at work clearing storm damage, restoring power

North Prospect Street home of John and Betsy Roberts was buried by an old maple that toppled during the storm.

The American Red Cross is opening up a shelter in Bowling Green for people displaced by this afternoon’s storm.

The shelter will be opened around 8 tonight at Conneaut Elementary School, where snacks will be available as well as overnight sleeping accommodations.

Crews at work clearing tree near corner of Lehman and South Prospect.

As of 6:30 p.m., Bowling Green electric crews were working throughout the community to restore power after a storm burst went through the city this afternoon. The major outage is at Lehman and Clough streets, according to Municipal Administrator Lori Tretter.

There are also about 12 other areas of power outages, mostly caused by downed trees or limbs.

City crews are also working to clear trees and branches from streets, so they are all passable. The crews will return later in the week to pick up the limbs.

Power outages have also knocked out three traffic lights, so those intersections have been turned into four-way stops until power is restored. Those intersections are Prospect and East Wooster, South Main and Clough, and North Prospect and Court.

Other stoplights have battery back up, Tretter said.

Vehicle was crushed on West Washington Street.

The Bowling Green Fire Division responded to one injury after a person was hurt by a tree branch falling on his arm. 

As the power comes back on, city residents should be aware that sparking is possible.

“We expect to get more calls tonight,” Tretter said.

“Our crews are responding responsibly, quickly and efficiently for the citizens of Bowling Green,” Tretter said.