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Ruin, Relief and Rebuilding
The Columbus Dispatch
Friday October 13, 2006
Story By Matt Tullis and Mark Ferenchik

Ruin, Relief and Rebuilding

Now-official twister damaged 67 houses in city subdivision

By Matt Tullis and Mark Ferenchik

About 40 people gathered last night at Quest Community Church, across from a Northeast Side neighborhood that was clobbered by a tornado Wednesday night.

They weren’t complaining of the mounds of debris they now must clean up. They weren’t angry that police kept them from returning to their homes until hours after the storm hit. In fact, no one in the audience had a gripe.

Instead, they seemed content to be alive.

The National Weather Service confirmed yesterday that it was an F2 tornado that touched down in the Upper Albany West subdivision, just south of Westerville and off Central College Road. Meteorologist Dan Hawblitzel said the tornado was very localized, damaging a small area. But the damage in the subdivision on the Northeast Side was plentiful. Robert H. Schottenstein, president and CEO of M/I Homes, which built the homes, said 67 of them were confirmed yesterday to have some type of damage.

Of those, 16 were either demolished, declared unsafe for residents to return or heavily damaged. Because the subdivision is new, some of the house still were being built and not yet occupied.

The same storm system also spawned an F1 tornado in Pickaway County, where three homes and a barn were damaged. No one was injured in either location.

Tornadoes with F2 strength have winds ranging from 113 to 157 mph, and are typically associated with tearing roofs off houses and uprooting and snapping large trees, Hawblitzel said.

“They can do considerable damage to homes, even well built homes,” he said. The strongest tornado is an F5.

Among those at last night’s meeting was Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman, who brought city officials to answer residents’ questions. Coleman asked whether those from New Albany West thought police and fire response was adequate, and the residents said yes.

There had been talk of the subdivision being so new that cruisers didn’t have the area on their computer maps.

Police Division Cmdr. Jeff Blackwell said that was true, but that the officers I Zone1, where New Albany West is located knew exactly where it was and easily directed the other police officers there. He said about 100 officers eventually responded Wednesday night.

Coleman, who toured the damaged area yesterday morning, promised residents that officers would be on guard, checking Ids of those who come and go from the subdivision, to keep looters at bay.

When the sirens started blaring Wednesday evening, Julie Postlethwaite told her co-workers at Polaris Grille that she worries about tornadoes hitting her New Albany West community. Because it’s a new subdivision surrounded by open fields, she thought it an inviting target.

Fifteen minutes later, she received a call from someone with the Columbus Division of Fire.

“He said something had landed in our master bedroom,” Postlethwaite said yesterday morning as she stood in front of her new home, which had a gaping hole where a bedroom wall had stood.

A roof from a model home located about a quarter-mile away had been ripped off and landed on the Treven Way town home Postlethwaite owns with her fiancé, Scott Mergen. parts of the roof, plywood and shingles laid next to her bed yesterday morning. Bricks from the wall of her home rested on a bookshelf.

The tornado damaged dozens of homes, though most not as severely as Postlethwaite’s and Mergen’s. Damage ranged from blown-out windows to ripped-off siding.

Several garages were leveled, damaging the vehicles inside. Two homes under construction were destroyed and left in a large pile of lumber. Backyard privacy fences were blown away, leaving only their posts, and mailboxes were spun around.

Mingling with those cleaning up yesterday were insurance adjusters and outreach teams from the American Red Cross. The Red Cross was offering assistance to residents, including psychiatric help in dealing with the storm, said volunteer Ted Durkee.

Wednesday night’s storm was part of a line of sever weather stretching across the state. It was the start of a strong cold front moving across warm, moist air in the Ohio Valley, Hawblitzel said.

The damage outside of Franklin County was concentrated on Carson Road in Pickaway County, where dispatchers said winds damaged a barn and three homes. Cinder blocks from the barn were deposited up to 300 yards away.

Upper Albany West residents who were not home during the storm spent most of the evening at nearby Quest Community Church while they waited for their homes to be deemed safe.

Doug Smith, a spokesman for the Fire Division, said a city building inspector went through 10-12 damaged homes after the storm. Those who had been home during the storm were allowed to stay in them if the inspector said they were safe, but those waiting at the church were not allowed to return home until about 11:30 p.m., Smith said.

Dustin Cullen and his fiancé, Kelly Martin, returned from classes at Mount Vernon Nazarene College’s Gahanna branch to find their home relatively unscathed. Their outdoor grill was destroyed, and they still were missing several pieces of patio furniture, but they considered themselves lucky. The home beside them was condemned and its garage had been blown away.

“It’s almost like it dropped down right on that garage,” Cullen said.