Tales from the storm side (be sure to read the last post first!)

Most of these stories were heard on WGL's Pat White Show, which had a generator at the ready.

- A little boy named Jonah called and said he was at the ball diamonds at Concordia when the wind picked up the main bleachers, threw it through the fence and landed it on the pitcher's mound.

Remember the "row of dead trees" I talked about before...?

-Overturned semis choked major thouroughfares on the east side (469 and 930) and Lower Huntington (on the southwest).

- A train full of frames at the GM plant was derailed.

-A lady called from a hotel on the north side and said that part of their roof came off, and chairs from the smoking patio at the strip bar across and down the road ended up in their yard.  Leading KC and I to speculate on strippers trying to rescue the chairs and weather balloons...

A ground hog joins us in surveying damage at the woods.  Just down from there, two porta-pots were on their sides.

- The Rivergreenway from New Haven had a boardwalk that ran above the edge of the Maumee River.  A huge tree trunk split it completely.

- Eyewitness sightings of funnel clouds were sighted (allegedly) in the worst-hit area of Lake and Columbia, as well as from the Big Lots parking lot in New Haven.

- a caller from Hoagland reported having three 100-foot-tall hickory trees "Pulled up by the roots".  He said he watched "branches I couldn't have picked up flying through the air".

I forgot to show you this as the set-up for the picture last time.

-I-69 was reported snarled south of Auburn with six trees fallen into the southbound lanes.  327 at Coldwater Road was described as closed due to "tree trunks the size of cars" in the road.

-My sister said she lost siding and branches, and "had to go two houses down"  (rural area) to retrieve lawn items.  Her mother-in-law had a big branch (due to have been removed the next day) land on her wheelchair ramp into the house, as well as siding from the barn being removed.  My nephew a barn near his house "no longer existed", and my brother-in-law "was nearly blown off the road 4 times" before being told his factory was closed for lack of power.

-Of course, we heard the best story right after Jonah's.  A dude called in and said he'd come upon a construction trailer on 24 at State Line that rolled three times, crushing a car along the way.  He and whoever was with him went to see if anyone was hurt.  The car's owner, who was in the trailer when it rolled, came out unscathed but in a bit of shock.

-The list of roads with limbs, trees, poles, or wires down was pretty much a who's who of the county's most heavilly travelled roads.  Colliseum Boulevard still had no lights this AM when me and Scrappy went in search of more ice.

-Speaking of which, ice and generators became the de facto currency of the land.  WOWO's embattled Op Manager Gregg Henson and News Director Dave Wheaton went live and fielded calls from 3 PM Saturday "until the calls stop"  (AKA well after 9) directing people to the latest places where these items, as well as food and shelter, could be had.  They did a FANTASTIC job, and being newbies to the community, learned a lot about it that would have been beneficial to them months ago.

On the hidden trail...

-Mayor Tom Henry came on this afternoon and said they lost "over three hundred trees".  I've heard estimates of over a thousand.

-My sister said after it hit, she called her daughter to find out how big and how long it was going to last.  " She tuned in the weather radar and said, "My God, mom, the whole screen's red and orange!"

-Laurie tells me I&M was estimating at 6 PM there were still 66,000 people out of power.