‘It was literally out of a movie;’ Red Roof Inn owner says weather caused nearly $1M in damages

WAPAKONETA — The owner of a Wapakoneta Red Roof Inn says last week’s severe weather could cost him up to a million dollars to fix damages.

Last week’s tornadoes destroyed the hotel, and Wednesday’s severe storms didn’t help them recover. The Red Roof Inn has no power, cracks in the ceilings and walls, and is leaking all everywhere.

Parth Patel, Manager at the Red Roof Inn, says the situation is horrible. “This is horrible, we cannot let anybody stay here, it is not safe,” said Patel.

He explained that he was struggling to believe what happened.

“It was literally out of a movie,” Patel describes. “Zombie apocalypse or something when there’s literally nobody around but there’s all the damage.”

Parts of the roof are gone, and when the tornado hit, he said there were around 30 guests in the rooms.

“Everybody was understanding of the situation at the time, nobody was panicking,” recalled Patel. Wednesday’s rain and wind caused additional damage to the building.

“Now with the wind, the tarps are kind of ripping, that’s causing some water to get into our rooms today,” Patel said he is going to get people to come here and try to fix the inn and hopefully reopen in 2-3 months, but even he isn’t sure if that timeline is doable.

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