“I think it was a small tornado. Of course, I don’t know that,” said Jim Cantrell, who lost the front porch of his home on Greenville Nashville Road, Washington Twp., Darke County, to high winds on Thursday.
Cantrell said the winds took the 30-foot porch over the top of the roof and deposited it, along with some shingles, in the back yard.
“Everybody here is fine,” he said.
In the 12 years his family has lived in the township, Thursday night is the first time a big storm has hit the home where he, his mother, his wife and their two adult sons live.
“I have to get up there and tarp the roof in the morning,” Cantrell said. “It’s a mess.”
Reports of damage followed storms that boiled up in eastern Indiana and tracked into Darke and Mercer counties across northwest Ohio on Thursday night:
@ 10:40 p.m.: In Darke County, power lines reported down in the 1100 block of state Route 502.
@ 10:21 p.m.: In Darke County, damage reported in the 700 block of Greenville Nashville Road.
@ 10:07 p.m.: In Darke County, a porch blew off the house 2 miles west and southwest of Sharpeye, an unincorporated area of Washington Twp. in the county.
@ 9:25 p.m.: In Wayne County, Indiana, trees and power poles reported down 2 miles northwest of Centerville at George Early and Grove roads, according to the county 9-1-1 call center.
@ 8:56 p.m.: in Fayette County, Indiana, pine trees down in the 900 block of Ranch Road. A roof torn off at 1062 W. 10th St., 2 miles southwest of Connersville, Indiana.
@ 7:50 p.m.: In Ripley County, Indiana, a house at 700 South and Lemon roads was destroyed. A large tree and power poles reported down on West County Road. The damage was reported along a southwest to northeast path, according the National Weather Service in Wilmington.