Survey crews from the National Weather Service's Cleveland office determined an EF-1 tornado briefly touched down in Knox County on Monday night.
The twister, with top winds estimated at 105 mph, struck at about 11:22 p.m. and remained on the ground for about 2 minutes, according to meteorologist Rick Garuckas.
"It wasn't on the ground for very long since the storms were moving at 70 mph," he told the Mount Vernon News.
The 25-yard twister followed a 7.1-mile path from Chesterville in Morrow County before lifting south of Green Valley Road near Cochran Road in Knox County.
The funnel sent cinder blocks flying some 20 yards into a field in Green Valley, where a detached garage was obliterated, along with a barn, the NWS said. Farm equipment was blown 200-300 yards, and trees and power lines were downed before the storm lifted near Cochran Road.
"A machine shed, cement block garage, things like that were actually blown into roadways," said James DeChant, deputy director for the Knox County Emergency Management Agency.
The tornado was embedded in a thunderstorm complex that moved through the area with heavy rain and straight-line winds, the NWS said. American Electric Power (AEP) estimated winds as high as 75 mph outside the tornado.
"Some areas had stronger winds than others," DeChant said.
Damage was 'pretty widespread" and included downed power lines and fallen trees he said. No deaths or major injuries have been reported.
As of Wednesday morning, there were still 11,004 AEP customers without power in Knox County, the city of Mount Vernon posted on Facebook.
“As for the city of Mount Vernon, AEP expects power to be restored to all its customers in the city no later than 11:59 p.m. Friday," the city said.
AEP said in a press release that 2,500 repair workers were working across central Ohio to restore power.
In Mount Vernon alone, 46 trees were toppled, according to city reports.
"Tornado sirens did not go off in Mount Vernon overnight as the city was at no time under a tornado warning,” according to the Knox County Emergency Management Agency. "The sirens are not activated for severe thunderstorm warnings, of which the city had several overnight. A tornado warning was issued for northern Knox County, and the county did have issues with the tornado sirens not going off in Fredericktown because of a high call volume."
In Knox County, New Delaware Road and Fredericktown were among the areas with the heaviest storm damage.
"Some of the areas in Fredericktown just got power back on at about 11 a.m. Wednesday," DeChant said. "In the Apple Valley-Howard area, the power came on late Tuesday night."
The Mount Vernon YMCA was opened to provide free assistance Tuesday and Wednesday for storm victims without power.
"They had showers open, you could stay in the air conditioning, [find] a place to charge your phones, mobility scooters, things like that," DeChant said.
Between 11:30 p.m. and 12:05 a.m. Monday, Knox County 911 handled more than 480 calls, he said.
"At one point, I think there were something like 80 calls waiting to be dispatched," he said. "Trees down, wires down, calls for service from out of town for welfare checks [on people]. People knew a storm had rolled through but couldn't get in touch with loved ones, [so] they requested officers to check on things."
AEP said in a release that if customers are experiencing financial hardship, they can visit AEPOhio.com/Assistance or contact the company on Facebook or Twitter.
