Northeast Ohio recovering from tornado damage
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Northeast Ohio residents are recovering from tornadoes that ripped through the area Tuesday afternoon.
Why it matters: More than 300,000 homes and businesses were still without power yesterday afternoon as images of downed trees and damaged property flooded social media.
Driving the news: The National Weather Service confirmed two tornadoes in the area.
- One touched down in Brook Park before traveling through Parma and into Bedford. The other began west in Avon Lake and moved into Bay Village into Rocky River.
How it works: An NWS spokesperson tells Axios the presence of a tornado is determined by wind speed and the damage.
- A twister is rated on an EF Scale from 0 (wind gusts 65 to 85 mph) to 5 (over 200).
The intrigue: Tornado warnings hit cellphones in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties just before 4pm Tuesday. Rain and wind gusts up to 86 mph swept in soon after.
- Storms lasted less than 30 minutes in most areas. Sirens from numerous emergency vehicles rang out almost immediately after things cleared.
By the numbers: Cuyahoga County was hit hardest, with more than 200,000 customers without power as of mid-morning yesterday, according to USA Today's Power Outage Tracker.
- Lorain County had more than 50,000 outages, while Geauga and Lake Counties each saw over 20,000.
What we saw: Photos on social media included uprooted trees, destroyed homes, crushed cars and blocked roads.
- One of the most jarring videos on Instagram shows wild rain and winds that resemble a hurricane outside a student center at Cleveland State University.
What's next: The NWS said its survey teams will continue assessing damage in parts of Northeast Ohio today.
The big picture: Ohio has already seen a record number of tornadoes this year with 67, surpassing 1992's record of 62.
- Tornadoes are still rare in Cuyahoga County, with just 18 recorded since 1950. The last one in the region hit East Cleveland in August 2023.
📧 Email us at [email protected] and send us your photos from the aftermath of Tuesday's storm.