PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP (4:30 p.m.) – A text message Thursday evening from the National Weather Service alerted Jenny Beverage that something wicked was about to come her way.
A subsequent phone call from her mom confirmed it – a tornado was on the ground in northern Crawford County and was headed east.
That’s when Jenny and her husband, Keith, grabbed their daughters and two dogs and headed to the basement of their home at 5582 West Road in Plymouth Township.
It may have been a lifesaving move as a twister packing 120 miles an hour of power soon roared through the area, ripping off a portion of the roof on their two-story home and also the roof of their nearby barn.
“We knew it was going to storm, but we didn’t know it was going to be this bad,” Beverage said outside the family home early Friday afternoon as her husband and others used heavy equipment in the clean-up process.
“We went to the basement. We were only down there for maybe five minutes and we could hear things come crashing down. We heard the wind start to pick up and things started crashing down.
“Right after that happened, my kids said their ears started popping. So my husband said to get them down on the floor. So the kids got down on the floor and we got over top of them and covered stuff with blankets and just prayed that we were going to make it through,” Beverage said.
The tornado that roared through the rural area was classified by the National Weather Service office in Cleveland as an F2 on the Fujita scale of tornado intensity. It damaged three homes in the area, though no injuries were reported, including residents and livestock.
Richland County Emergency Management Agency Director Rebecca Owens said all of the property owners in the 5000 block of West Road whose buildings were damaged have private insurance.
It’s the third confirmed tornado in Richland County in the last five years, including April 2019 in Shelby, and June 2022 in a wooded area of a southeastern portion of the county.
(Below is a photo gallery from the 5000 block of West Road in Plymouth Township in northern Richland County on Friday afternoon. The story continues under the gallery.)
The tornado initially touched down in northern Crawford County at 7:54 p.m. and traveled 10.3 miles in the next 19 minutes before lifting near the area of Willet and Opdyke roads.
After five minutes of chaos, Beverage said it got quiet.
Only then did she and her husband and their daughters, ages 16 and 12, think about emerging.
“My husband went upstairs to see what he could see. He could tell my car (a 2021 Chevy Traverse) was flipped on its top and our camper was gone. And then we didn’t even see what happened until we opened the back door and saw how bad it was,” she said.
Beverage, who said her family has lived in the house for the last 15 years, didn’t want to think about what would have happened if they hadn’t gone to the basement.
“It was pretty bad. We needed to go to the basement,” said Beverage, who said her family helped Shelby residents clean up after that twister five years ago.
“My daughters were pretty shocked. They were like ‘oh my gosh.’ They didn’t know what to think. A lot of things were racing through my head at the time. The power was out and we were worried about coming outside with power lines being down,” Beverage said.
As she spoke, cleanup work continued around her family home.
“They have actually got a lot of it cleaned up. Our whole front yard was full of debris, but they got it all on a heaping pile there, out of the way. Our driveway was blocked off from the camper,” she said.
Owens, who conducted a press conference at noon to update media, said individuals with damage from Thursday night’s storm should call 211, which will compile it and forward it to the EMA office.
She said property owners with damage in the county should contact the county auditor’s office to seek a potential adjustment to their property taxes.
PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP (1:15 a.m.) — Severe weather cut a swath of destruction through Richland County on Thursday night, but no injuries were reported as of early Friday morning.
According to the Richland County Emergency Management Agency, at approximately 7:45 p.m. tornado sirens were activated in northwestern and central Richland County.
At 8:34 p.m. Richland County Sheriff’s office reported to Richland County EMA the storm had traveled through Plymouth Township in northwestern Richland County.
Downed power lines and trees were reported along with structural damage to two homes in the area of West Road and State Route 598 in Plymouth Township.
Plymouth Township Fire responded to the scene to assist with blocking the road until the utility company arrived. Residents were home at the time of the storm.
The Red Cross was contacted to provide assistance if needed. Residents are advised to exercise caution when driving due to downed power lines and trees throughout the area.
Richland County EMA Director Rebecca Owens arrived on scene to conduct initial assessment. Debris was scattered throughout the area; portions of the roof and backside were torn off of one home.
A vehicle was flipped on its side and a camper was destroyed. Trees were twisted and snapped off along with debris wrapped around utility poles at the bottom and also where the lines connected to the poles.
Further assessment will be conducted Friday and forwarded to the National Weather Service who will determine the impact of the storm.
Richland County EMA will provide updates as more information becomes available.
