By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
For a couple hours Wednesday night, local residents sat in their basements with their eyes glued to weather radar. They tried to decipher the path of the tornadoes from the west, bracing for their possible arrival here.
But when it was over, Bowling Green and Wood County survived the storm unscathed, according to local emergency response officials.
“What a crazy night,” Wood County Emergency Management Agency Director Brad Gilbert said after the tornado warning was lifted for the county at 9:30 p.m. “It was a strange phenomenon tonight.”
The tornado warning was followed by a thunderstorm warning and heavy rains. “We can handle that,” Gilbert said.
Though tornadoes reportedly touched down in several places to the west, they seemed to have lost their punch when they reached this area.
The National Weather Service reported “a lot of rotation on the radar,” Gilbert said. And trained weather spotters and firefighters called in a lot of strange weather. “I received a lot of reports of wall clouds, funnel clouds, but no tornado touching down. So that’s good.”
Normally such weather is accompanied with lighting and heavy winds – but not tonight, he added. So Gilbert said he did not even get reports of power outages from the storm.
“The good news is, as the storms came into Wood County the tornadoes dissipated,” said Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn. “I’m not aware of any damage.”
But the county was prepared for the worst, with trained weather spotters, firefighters and ham radio operators on guard, the sheriff said.
Bowling Green Fire Division had firefighters watching the skies on the west side of the city, Fire Chief Tom Sanderson said.
“When we have a tornado watch, we send spotters out to the west edge of town,” Sanderson said. “If it turns to a warning, we bring them back in” to take shelter.
“We didn’t see any tornadic activity” Wednesday evening, the chief said.
Bowling Green Police Major Justin White said no damage or problems from the storm had been reported to him. “Actually, I’m down in the basement with my kids,” said White, who was not on duty at the time.
The city avoided the high winds that hit other areas. “I think we were fortunate,” White said.
The storm hit during the first week of classes for students at Bowling Green State University. According to BGSU spokesman Dave Kielmeyer, the university safety policy requires students to go to the lowest level of buildings when a tornado warning is in effect.
“They were all sent down to the lowest floor,” Kielmeyer said. “I think everything went fine. We had good compliance.”
