MUSKINGUM COUNTY, Ohio — The tornado sirens sounded through Muskingum County on Wednesday evening, but soon after, the warning was canceled, and residents like Mike and Virginia Lane headed up for bed.
About an hour later, the Lane's and their neighbors woke to the sounds of a tornado making its way through their neighborhood.
“One siren went off and then we waited. It was calm but then it started raining and it seemed like it was over so we went to bed because I had to get up for work in the morning and all of a sudden it just came,” Virginia said. “The sirens didn’t go off, they only went off once then they canceled it and we thought we were in the clear.”
“I didn’t make it to the basement, but we are fine, we are good,” Mike said.
No warning was issued from the National Weather Service before the tornado struck. The NWS was also caught off guard by the storm.
“Generally what usually happens with these types of situations, we look at the first cell and see if we get any damage from that. And believe it or not, the damage, the rotation we saw from the first cell was greater than what we saw from this one so when we didn’t get any reports from that one. We were assuming this one was on the less severe side,” said NWS Meteorologist David Schallenberger.
The tornado was on the ground for at least half a mile with wind speeds up to 120 to 130 mph, according to the NWS.
Many homes and businesses lost a roof or wall to the storm, including Fallsburg Pizza.
The restaurant lost its roof and back wall, and out front a trailer flipped over and debris was scattered everywhere.
“Just shock pure shock. I knew that damage could happen but you never think it is gonna happen to you until it does,” said owner Ann Cline.
Four people were injured in Wednesday’s storm and taken to the hospital.
The Frazeysburg Elementary School is set up as an emergency shelter.