By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The National Weather Service has labeled the weather phenomenon that hit Bowling Green Tuesday afternoon as a “downburst.”
“It came down very quickly, and went back up quickly,” leaving a mess in its wake, said Suzette Hall, of the Wood County Emergency Management Agency.
The National Weather Service defines a downburst as a strong downdraft current of air from a cumulonimbus cloud, often associated with intense thunderstorms. Downdrafts may produce damaging winds at the surface – which definitely was the case in Bowling Green on Tuesday.
“It was just a freak thing with no warning,” Police Chief Tony Hetrick said this morning.
“I looked out the window at one point and couldn’t see the building across the street,” with hail coming down so hard, Hetrick said.
The downburst knocked down a series of wires and tree limbs, causing 12 areas of power outages in the city. Crews worked through the night to restore electricity, according to Municipal Administrator Lori Tretter.
“Electric crews restored all power as of 4:30 this morning. Everyone has power,” Tretter said.
“Some people were without power till the middle of the night,” in the area of Clough and Lehman streets, she said.
Anyone still without power should check their breaker box, or call the city if they need further help.
The storm not only knocked out power, but made many streets impossible to navigate. City Public Works employees worked on clearing the roads until 10:30 p.m.
“All roads are clear, and all of the city traffic lights are up and working,” Tretter said.
Today, city public works employees are out cleaning up the right-of-ways. The city will announce its plans soon for picking up downed branches.
“We are still evaluating a storm pickup,” she said.
Bowling Green residents tend to be a pretty hardy people when it comes to storms, Tretter said. But Tuesday’s downburst packed quite a punch.
“This one was very surprising for a lot of us,” she said.
Bowling Green Fire Division responded to a number of reports of downed wires.
“Power went out in the vast majority of the city,” said Fire Chief Bill Moorman.
City workers tried to get power restored to the most critical areas first – the downtown, the police station and other sites.
“The extent of the damage was so vast and we relied on the public to let us know,” Moorman said.
Power outages knocked out three traffic lights, so those intersections were turned into four-way stops until power was restored. Those intersections were Prospect and East Wooster, South Main and Clough, and North Prospect and Court.
The Bowling Green Fire Division responded to one injury after a person was hurt by a tree branch falling on his arm.
A generator at the police station kicked in when the power was knocked out.
“It didn’t interrupt our dispatch,” Hetrick said.
However, the “mass amount” of phone calls from the public led to a request the BGSU Police dispatch handle the fire calls.
“That relieved some pressure,” Hetrick said. “All of us were really stretched.”
The police officers initially made sure there were no injuries due to downed trees.
“Our first priority was to check cars that were crushed, and to make sure nobody was in them,” the police chief said.
Officers then blocked streets that had wires down. They cleared brush where possible.
“There were a lot of wires intermingled with limbs,” Hetrick said.
Over at Conneaut Elementary School, the American Red Cross set up a shelter for people without power at their homes.
“A lot of people lost power,” said Red Cross volunteer Peter Seniuk, as he sat near the front door of the school, waiting for residents to show up Tuesday evening.
“If you need a place to stay, the Red Cross will help you find a place to stay,” he said.
Though Conneaut Elementary is not air conditioned, it had power, so big fans were running in the cafeteria where nine cots were set up in expectation of overnight guests.
Volunteers also stocked the site with blankets, bottled water and snacks like granola bars.
But as of this morning, no Bowling Green residents had showed up for shelter. That’s OK, said Red Cross volunteer Dwaine Nemire.
“You have to set up for it, just in case someone needs it,” Nemire said this morning.
Moorman said he appreciated the Red Cross setting up the shelter, even if it went unused.
“We just wanted to make sure anyone who had adverse effects from the storm had a place to go,” the fire chief said.
While all the power is restored, there are lingering problems at the Wood County Courthouse, where the power outage is causing problems with the cooling system today. The commissioners office sent out a notice to employees that they may notice the buildings being warmer today.
