Several storms rolled through Geauga County Wednesday night, dumping inches of rain, knocking out power and blocking roads with fallen branches.
The campus of Notre Dame Cathedral Latin in Munson Township was one of the hardest hit areas in the county. Winds blew the shingles off the roof at McGarry Gym early in the evening, resulting in water damage to the structure.
A report from the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office said a call came in about 7:35 p.m. at 13000 Auburn Road that part of the roof was ripped off with substantial damage and water was pouring into the building. The cafeteria nearby, where an awards celebration was going on, was evacuated and there were no injuries, according to the report.
NDCL President Sister Jacquelyn Gusdane said the roof was not destroyed, but substantial damage was done by the storm.
“When the roofing material peeled away, it damaged roof drains as well as an exhaust fan, which allowed rainwater to flood the gym floor,” she said in an email. “The Munson Fire Department, Geauga County Sheriff, and safety forces from surrounding communities responded immediately to the scene. We are very grateful for their help and expertise.”
Paul Davis Restoration of Burton worked through the night to minimize the damage. A couple of inches of water still remained on the wooden gym floor and workers were running squeegees out the door in an attempt to dry the wood. But water continued to drip down the walls at 9 a.m. Thursday.
“We don’t have a big enough finger for the holes,” said Tony Bozeglav, NDCL director of buildings and grounds. The fire alarm went off about 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, he said, when winds lifted the roof covering and left it wrinkled but in place on the roof.
The building structure is sound, he said, but getting the water off the floor was a priority.
“The restoration contractor will manage the first phases of the recovery process.,” Gusdane said. “Today workers will install a temporary roof in order to stop the infiltration of water and make McGarry safe and sound. More permanent repairs will begin after engineers complete a thorough evaluation of the damage.
“The restoration contractor has also begun the highly technical process of drying out the gymnasium floor. Tests later this week will determine the next steps in that process.”
While several storms rumbled through the county and rain fell much of the night, the blast that took off the covering of the gym roof came in from Lorraine County, according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Martin Mullen.
“There were some strong winds that went through (Geauga County). The radar estimated it at 55 to 65 miles per hour,” he said of the winds that did the damage. “It could have been, locally, higher.”
The same storm caused a lot of damage in Lorraine and Cuyahoga counties, he said, including knocking down power lines.
Trees and branches came down on several roads during the storms. The worst was on Butternut Road in Geauga, said Geauga County Engineer Joe Cattell. The road had to be closed until the power could be turned off and the county workers could clear the blockage.
“It took until this morning to get (the power) turned off,” he said, adding that First Energy had a lot of serious damage to take care of through the night.
First Energy’s outage webpage http://outages.firstenergycorp.com/oh.html shows about 1,500 customers suffered some power outage recently.
FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin said about 9,000 customers were without power from the storm with the majority of outages occurring in Newbury, Bainbridge and Chester townships. Other outages were scattered. Roughly 40,000 customers in northeast Ohio were affected, he said.
“When the wind starts blowing as badly as it did, there’s a lot of tree damage,” Durbin said. When a tree takes down a line, the power has to be shut off, then the tree has to be cleared and, finally, repairs crews can do their job, he said.
By noon Thursday the number of Geauga residents without power was down to about 1,000, Durbin said.
