Ones that hit Grove City, Madison County among 4 in state

Hours after the hail stopped pelting his home and the 100-mph-plus winds tore through his neighborhood, Grove City resident Jon Glazer still couldn’t sleep.

So at 4 a.m. Wednesday, he walked outside to eerie, silent blackness.

The EF1 tornado that struck the central Ohio suburb and adjacent Jackson Township about 5 p.m. Tuesday knocked out power to his neighborhood, leaving only the sound of whirring gas generators in its wake.

“It was like God’s hand just slammed down right here,” the 54-year-old Glazer said.

Fortunately, nobody was injured.

National Weather Service personnel conducted a damage assessment Wednesday and preliminarily confirmed that an EF1 tornado with a maximum wind speed of 105 mph had struck the Grove City area in southcentral Franklin County. It was one of four confirmed tornadoes in Ohio Tuesday.

A brief EF0, the lowest-level tornado on the Enhanced Fujita rating scale, had a top wind speed of 85 mph as it heavily damaged barns on Roberts Mill Road and on Routes 38 and 56 southwest of London in Madison County, the weather service said.

Two other tornadoes were reported Tuesday: one in Greene County and in Clark County in southwestern Ohio.

The tornado that struck the Grove City area initially touched down just south of Orders Road and moved northeast, crossing Hoover Road, Interstate 71 and White Road before lifting just south of Stringtown Road, the weather service’s survey crew determined. The tornado’s widest path was about 75 yards, and it extended for 2.6 miles.