By Meredith Heagney
The Columbus Dispatch
PIKE COUNTY, Ohio — Five people were injured and three mobile homes were destroyed yesterday afternoon when a storm that might have included a tornado cut across north-central Pike County, according to the county’s Emergency Management Agency.
The damage occurred near Buchanan about 4:15 p.m. The five injured were a man, a woman and three children, all in the same mobile home, said Don Simonton, county EMA director. They suffered bone fractures, cuts and bruises, but none had life-threatening injuries, he said.
Simonton didn’t release further details about those injured, but he said the woman and two of the children were treated at Pike Community Hospital, while the man and the third child were taken to an unidentified Columbus hospital.
Several mobile homes and houses across Pike County were damaged by falling tree branches and power lines, Simonton said.
One mobile home “is just a bunch of debris lying on the ground,” he said. “It’s hardly even discernible as a trailer.”
The family who lived in that home was not there, Simonton said.
No tornado has been confirmed by the National Weather Service, said Mike Gallagher, a meteorologist for the service in Wilmington.
A meteorologist will visit the scene this morning to determine whether a tornado touched down. The weather service also is investigating reports of tornadoes in Ross and Scioto counties, Gallagher said.
The storm was part of a front that drove through central and southern Ohio yesterday afternoon. The worst weather was in south-central Ohio.
In Ross County, several houses were damaged, and trees, power lines and poles were down. As of last night, no resident was using a Red Cross shelter set up at a local fire department.
In Scioto County, the storm shut down county roads and state routes, said Sonia Banks, a dispatcher for the State Highway Patrol. One road was under 3 feet to 4 feet of water, and residents’ basements were flooded.
“It was like an ice storm, only in the middle of summer,” Banks said of the damage to trees and power lines.
Two people were taken to a hospital in Huntington, W.Va., after a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle was reportedly struck by lightning in Lawrence County. A 911 dispatcher could not say whether the people were riding the four-wheeler or how badly they were injured.
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