Tornado leaves a path of destruction in Darke County
Twister seen in Miami County, but no reports that it touched down.
A National Weather Service storm survey confirmed a EF-0 tornado struck Darke County Saturday destroying a barn, a commercial truck and leaving several miles of destroyed crops in its path.
The confirmation came Sunday morning after a NWS team assessment of the damage following severe storms that trav-
eled from eastern Darke to Logan counties.
NWS confirmed a tornado was spotted over the Piqua area, but there were no reports it touched ground and there were no damage reports in Miami County. No injuries were reported. “Once we started to get the reports of damage from some of these same areas, we definitely wanted to come out and see if it was indeed tornado related and how strong might the winds have been,” said Mike Kurz, NWS meteorologist.
Kurz confirmed the only structural damage reported was in Adams Twp. on Gettysburg-Pitsburg Road where a barn was destroyed and a large commercial large was flipped on its side. There was also some tree damage in the same area.
“The rest of the path looks to be confined to just mainly farmland and corn fields and things of that sort,” Kurz said. “That’s the fortunate thing. Most of this damage was confined to rural crops.”
After evaluating the damage to the barn and other structures and confirmation from the pictures and video determined it was a “weak” tornado.
“But that cell that produced the tornado south of Gettysburg was pretty persistent in showing strong rotations, so we’re going to continue traveling some roads further northeast of this damaged area to see if we find any other indications of damage in the area,” Kurz said.
A lot of times during a damage survey it’s not “crystal clear” if there was a tornado or straight line winds, he added.
“The advantage that we had with this storm survey was that from the pictures and video we saw from Saturday night’s storms we knew that it was likely a tornado just from the from the funnel cloud reports and the spotter reports we received,” Kurz said. “So going into this it was just a question of how strong were the winds that caused this damage.”
Saturday’s tornado was the most recent in the southwest Ohio area. On Aug. 17, a tornado with a maximum windspeed 75 mph struck Sardinia, however WCPO. com reported there were no injuries. The Cincinnati news station reported there was a lot of damage in the area that included scattered debris over several blocks, a knocked over gas pump and the awning at the Sardinia Fuel Mart was taken off. Schools were placed on lockdown as well.
An estimated 226 tornadoes were reported in Ohio over a 10-year period starting in 2006, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Four occured in Greene, three in Miami, five in Montgomery and three occurred in Warren counties. Eleven deaths and 73 injuries were repored.
Gene Garber was away from his home the 5000 block of Gettysburg-Pitsburg Road near the Pleasant View Missionary Church when the tornado touched down in Adams Twp. on Saturday. He later came home to an overturned truck and barn that had been destroyed.
“I came home as quick as I could,” Garber said. “There was a lot of traffic, I couldn’t get in the driveway but I got back here and seen the damage. It was kind of overwhelming.”
Dan and DeeDee Warner assessed the damage to their cornfields which they said was minimal on Saturday.
“Right now I’m just thankful it wasn’t worse,” Dan Warner said. “Very thankful. Storms like this can easily tip over the irrigation systems and cause major damage.”