SHELBY COUNTY — The National Weather Service conducted damage surveys after severe storms moved through parts of the Miami Valley on Wednesday.
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“We were aware of some damage that occurred in Shelby County, and were out there today to evaluate that damage,” Brandon Peloquin, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, said.
They’re looking for certain patterns in the debris that point towards a tornado or straight-line winds.
“For straight line winds, a lot of the damage tends to be pushed all in one direction,” Peloquin said.
The aftermath of tornadoes has a different pattern.
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“Everything seems to be thrown in toward the center and follows a convergent path. We haven’t seen that yet, but there’s still a lot more damage to look at,” Peloquin said.
After checking out the 20 sites, the surveyors will analyze all their notes.
Regardless of whether it was a tornado or straight-line winds, there’s a lot of cleanup to do.
“Estimated winds were 70 or 75 miles an hour with the storm that moved through. The pattern of the damage indicated to me that straight-line winds were the result of that damage,” Peloquin said. “Everything was kind of thrown in the same direction.”
One woman was eager to let the NWS look through the damage on her property.
“It blew our 500-gallon propane tank off. It was full, and we have two heat pumps in that house, and it blew them over. And quite a bit of structural damage on the house.” Kari Roberts said.
The storm damage spans from her quilt shop to her home.
Pieces of her roof are dangling in the tree line behind her home.
But it could have been worse.
“The farmer over there lost his barn, and we got a lot of debris from the barns into our house, and we’re just struggling to get going again,” Roberts said.
Wifi is down, and her phone signal isn’t stable, but she has power and a passion for sewing.
“We’ll get through it, but the shop is still open,” Roberts said.
The NWS has not officially declared whether the damage was caused by a tornado or straight-line winds yet.
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