Tornado Hits, 5-10 People Injured in Northeast Ohio

    By
    Insha Shah
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    Tornado hits Northeast Ohio on Sunday afternoon. The police department said that it was a miracle that only 5-10 people suffered minor injuries.

    The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning at 4:39 p.m. which went on till 5:30. The tornado was first reported at 4:49 p.m.

    The power infrastructure and area roadways went through severe damage. The roadways are littered with utility poles and trees. The areas with received the heaviest damage are Rocket Chevy, Donley Ford, Drug Mart and Carton Service. Lance Comb, the Shelby Police Chief gave a statement taking responsibility for not acting soon enough on the tornado warning.

    He said: “It is my understanding that there have been some discussions regarding the tornado sirens and their activation. If there are problems, they fall on my shoulders. The police department activates those sirens for the city of Shelby. We normally receive specific alerts and warnings for northern
    Richland County and that is when we typically activate the sirens. The alert we received today was general to Richland County and not specific to the Shelby area. Within a very short time, the department received a report of an active tornado near or on SR39 and the working supervisor activated the alert sirens.

    That did occur before the tornado caused the damage across 39 If the sirens were not activated soon enough, I take the blame. What we have tried to do is monthly testing with notification and been judicious in their use to avoid people ignoring the sirens when there is an immediate threat. We will be reviewing that procedure and examining whether we need to make additional adjustments.” The department also sent out a message via Facebook saying that ‘If there is a silver lining to the cloud that passed us, was the time, day and location – just a half a mile to the north and our residential neighbourhoods would have been devastated.’