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Severe weather strikes Warren again

Sunday’s storm downs trees, power lines

Tribune Chronicle / Allie Vugrincic Carlton Drive NW resident Barb Messner stands among debris in her living room Monday morning after several trees hit her house during Sunday’s storm. She said the impact sent furniture from the dining room into the living room and shattered a collection of antique dishes.

WARREN — The most recent burst of severe weather Sunday night brought down a slew of trees in the area of Tod Avenue NW and Beal Street, some of which caused significant damage to residential homes.

“The whole neighborhood has kind of big trees,” said Miriam Cole of Beal Street. “You get kinda attached to them.”

Several trees with intermingled root systems went down together during the storm and fell on nearby houses.

The Beachlers, who live on Carlton Drive SW, were in their dining room when trees hit their house around 8 p.m. The family of seven and their three dogs were all unharmed.

“Dinner is still on the table,” said Jennifer Beachler, who Monday morning was out in her backyard watching branches being extracted from her daughter’s upstairs bedroom.

She said the windows blew out and the foundation of the house shifted in the impact. The whole building appeared slightly pushed forward.

Next door, Barb Messner said when several large trees fell on the back of her house, the force threw furniture from the dining room into the living room. Monday morning, the house was still in disarray. Shards of glass — some of which used to be a collection of antique plates — covered the floor throughout the house.

Messner said the trees “stacked the furniture,” throwing a wooden chair perfectly on top of another in the living room.

“It stuns and dazes you, and you don’t know what to do first,” Messner said.

She said she was grateful no one was hurt and that everything lost was replaceable.

A block away on Beal Street, around a half dozen large trees came down in back yards, scarcely missing houses. Resident Phil Romain likened the neighborhood to “tornado alley.”

Romain said he and a neighbor saw rotation in the clouds. In his backyard, a large oak tree snapped partway up the trunk.

A neighbor a few houses down had one large tree snap and take four smaller ones out on the way down.

On Tod Avenue NW, another tree fell on an apparently unoccupied home.

Keith Miller, who lives several houses away on Tod Avenue, said the home sat abandoned for some months until recently when someone came with trash receptacles and cleaned it out, but he hasn’t seen anyone there since.

“I don’t know long that (tree) will lay there,” he said.

Tod Avenue from Beal Street to Englesson Drive was closed to through traffic Monday morning because of debris on the roadway, but reopened later in the day. Resident Denise Scarbrough said a different section of Tod Avenue near Elm Hill Drive NW was closed Sunday night for high water.

Scarbrough had a large branch take down power lines. She said her power was out until 1 a.m. Monday.

Ohio Edison on Sunday night reported about 5,481 Trumbull County customers without power following the storm, with another 3,370 without power in Mahoning County.

Trumbull County 911 received about 400 calls for storm damage, with reports of more trees and power lines down in Champion and Liberty.

In Weathersfield, state Route 46 from McKees Lane in Niles to County Line Road was closed overnight after storm damage completely blocked the road. The road reopened around 7 a.m. Monday.

The Weathersfield township building Monday morning reported having no phone service because of storm damage.

Rod Cowan, a meteorologist from WKBN-TV 27, said the National Weather Service in Cleveland ruled the damage was caused by straight-line winds based on videos of the damage. He said the NWS reported golf-ball size hail in Akron and wind gusts up to 57 mph at the height of the storm.

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