Officials rule out tornado

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An NWS team said a
microburst hit Salem on Thursday.

By MAYSOON ABDELRASUL
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

SALEM — Augie Thomas, owner of East of Chicago Pizza Co. here, was taking care of a customer Thursday afternoon when the door flew off the hinges and the money flew out of the customer's hand.

He said the sky got real dark and the next thing he saw was debris flying across the parking lot. His wife, Debbie, ran to get her granddaughter, who was watching the storm, and took cover in the walk-in cooler. By the time she made it in the back, the storm was all over.

What appeared to be a tornado hitting Salem on Thursday turned out to be a microburst, said Richard Kane from the National Weather Service.

Kane and his crew, along with emergency rescue teams from Salem assessed the damage Friday afternoon and concluded the winds to be at 85 mph. Tornado winds have to be 100 mph or more, he said.

The microburst — it is a strong blast of wind starting from a high altitude that moves downward at a fast rate — was traveling from the northwest and moving toward the southeast at a width of 200 yards, Kane said.

Not as powerful

The same storm that hit Salem reached Leetonia but was not as powerful by the time it hit there, Kane added.

He said he was looking for signs of debris thrown on the main street or debris against the building because that would be a sign of a tornado.

Winds need to be blowing in a projectile motion to be a tornado, but Thursday's winds were more straight with only a slight bit of circular motion.

"Since the storm had a rotation, we couldn't rule out a tornado," he said. That is why an assessment and calculation had to be done to determine what caused the damage.

"There was a lot of funnel clouds hanging low to the ground," he said, but none actually touched down.

In Ohio, microbursts and macrobursts occur more frequently than tornadoes and can be quite dangerous, Kane said. A macroburst is stronger than a microburst but not quite as strong as tornado.

Anytime there is a severe thunderstorm warning, people should take the matter seriously, Kane said.

"People take severe thunderstorms for granted, but they can be bad," he said. "Any thunderstorm is deadly and dangerous."

Having a plan

Kane said everyone should have a plan in case of a severe thunderstorm warning or tornado warning and follow through on the plan.

He said people should have a safe place to seek shelter, whether it would be in a home or in a business, and go to that place when there is a warning.

He said driving in a car is relatively safe from lightning but the acceleration of the winds can cause the glass to break, and that is what happened in the Giant Eagle parking lot here.

Tom Eastek, Salem fire captain, said anywhere from 40 to 60 cars were damaged in the store's lot Thursday. Some were damaged in the Marc's parking lot next to Giant Eagle.

Everyone within half-mile of Giant Eagle was evacuated because of a propane leak. Eastek said, "We are very fortunate we took the power out because it's hard to say what we could have lost."

Thomas said he closed up the pizza shop for a few hours when he was told to evacuate but he reopened that night.

Construction workers cleaned up a pile of debris in front of Giant Eagle and are working on the roof of the Get-Go gas station.

Saturday, August 11, 2007