Schools damaged, roads closed: Delaware County hit hard by storms

The morning after severe storms and at least three confirmed tornadoes ripped through central Ohio Thursday night, Delaware County residents surveyed the damage.

Downed trees littered the sides of Lackey Old State Road in Delaware, and chainsaws buzzed as residents worked to clear their yards. The storm caved in the roof of Brian Ogrydziak’s garage, trapping his car under rubble. Ogrydziak had just arrived home when the potential tornado hit.

“The car was in that garage maybe 15 minutes,” Ogrydziak said.

After the worst of the wind had passed, Ogrydziak opened the door to look outside. The lingering wind nearly ripped the screen door from his hands.

Sherrie Bender, who ventured out of her house in the morning to check on her neighbors, said the winds lifted an RV trailer in her yard and slammed it against her son's car. Her house is "built like a concrete fortress," she said, so the storm wasn't especially frightening, but a neighbor told her they felt the walls of their house moving and saw the windows bowing under the pressure.

"It's a lot of damage," Bender said. "Holy cow!"

Delaware State Park tornado shelter opened

As the first tornado sirens were triggered in Delaware County, the doors of a tornado shelter at Delaware State Park were automatically unlocked.

"They did have 30 people in the shelter and it was working exactly as it was intended," said Scott Stewart, deputy director of Delaware County Emergency Management.

The shelter, built in 2017, was built for campers and can endure 250 mph winds and a direct hit of a 15-pound piece of lumber at 100 mph.

Berlin Middle School area damaged

Just down the road at the Pines at Berlin Station, a subdivision by Berlin Middle School, siding was ripped from houses and one house’s roof was torn off. One house had a gaping hole in its side covered by a flapping tarp.

Downed power lines blocked the middle school, but residents who visited the school said windows were busted out in the building and the field’s scoreboard was missing. At least six electrical transmission towers were knocked down and lay in the field between the subdivision and the middle school.

Homes in the subdivision and along Lackey Old State Road were without power. As of 2 p.m., AEP Ohio's website showed 4,694 customers without power in Delaware County — about 6% of the roughly 75,000 the company serves in the county.

Specks and tatters of insulation lined sidewalks and the sides of houses at Pine Station. Debris from inside houses — books, crayons, a broken pair of child’s glasses — were scattered in the grass.

“Someone else’s roof is in my kitchen,” said Katie Sprinkle, who weathered the storm with her husband and two kids, ages 9 and 11. The storm terrified her 9-year-old daughter.

“Pray loud, mom,” she said her daughter told her.

The kids wore bike helmets to protect themselves from falling debris, and her husband placed an overturned canoe over them. The family could hear windows breaking in the wind. It sounded like an explosion, Sprinkle said.

The storm shook dust down from the ceiling. It was 3 a.m. before Sprinkle went back to sleep.

Though shaken by the storm, Sprinkle was in good spirits as she stood in her lawn talking to neighbors and surveying the damage. Neighbors stopped by to check in on each other and offer help. No one in the subdivision was hurt, to her knowledge.

“It’s just stuff,” Sprinkle said, looking back at her house.

Delaware County schools close

Olentangy Local School District and Big Walnut Local Schools were both closed Friday due to the storms.

In the Olentangy district, Berlin Middle and High schools, both located on Piatt Road, were damaged by the storm, with the athletic area at the high school and the middle school’s awning both taking damage. Amanda Beeman, Olentangy spokesperson, said there were a number of power lines damaged along Piatt Road by the school buildings and that the roads were closed.

As of Friday morning, seven of the school buildings in the northeast quadrant and the district's transportation office were without power, including Berlin Middle and High schools.

Olentangy school district leadership was in contact with government officials and emergency management teams, according to a letter from the district, and there was no estimate for when power would be restored or debris clearance on roadways.

Beeman said the district was beginning the process of reaching out to parents to provide resources for those impacted by the storm and how the buildings will be repaired.

Decisions on high school after-school activities will be made by 1 p.m.

Ryan McClane, superintendent of Big Walnut Local Schools, said while none of the district buildings sustained damage, the transportation issue posed by the damage to the wider community required the district to close for the day.

“Plus — families have bigger issues right now dealing with the storm damage,” McClane said. “It just made sense for us to close.”

He said he anticipates the district resuming business as usual on Monday.

Cole Behrens and Dean Narcisso contributed to this report.

bagallion@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Delaware County storms knocks transmission lines into roads, closes schools