Severe weather damages landmarks, keeps emergency crews busy

GENEVA-ON-THE-LAKE – This time, Mother Nature got personal.
On the afternoon of Sunday, June 14, a severe storm swept through Ashtabula County, damaging two beloved county landmarks.
The winds toppled the iconic Ferris wheel at the Old Firehouse Winery in Geneva-on-the-Lake while the historic Benetka Road Covered Bridge in Sheffield Township also sustained damage.
The Ferris wheel lay in a crumpled mess at the winery Monday as passers-by stopped and looked at the aftermath.
“This is so sad,” Ed Williams of Madison said. “All of us who grew up in the area had memories of it.”
Lissa and Katie Sanicky of Rootstown reflected on the loss.
“It’s awful,” Lissa said. “The kids loved it when they were here.”
“That’s crazy,” Katie said. “It’s been here forever. It was part of the skyline.”
Tina Fink, manager at Earth’s Natural Treasures, which is located beside the Old Firehouse Winery, was also saddened.
“It’s tragic to me,” she said of the Ferris wheel’s loss. “It’s an icon.”
The winery put a post on its Facebook page with pictures of the damaged Ferris wheel.
“They say when it rains it pours,” the post read. “It was certainly a crazy day for the Old Firehouse. Everyone is safe which is what really matters.”
Damien Anderson of Geneva said he was working as a server at the winery when the Ferris wheel went down.
“I saw it on the ground,” he said. “It was super surreal.”
Meanwhile, Ginger Whitehead, director of the Ashtabula County Covered Bridge Festival, confirmed that the Benetka Covered Bridge was damaged in the storm when a tree fell and hit its roof.
“Thankfully, it’s not badly damaged, but it’s still terrible,” she said. “It was a very big tree and it was far enough away that just a little piece of it hit the bridge.”
She said it’s her favorite bridge and she was heartbroken, even if the damage wasn’t major.
“It’s a beautiful spot, being one of the older ones,” she said.
According to the Ashtabula County Visitors Bureau, the structure is a 138-foot Town lattice with Arch bridge that was built about 1900 and spans the Ashtabula River.
Ashtabula County Engineer Timothy T. Martin P.E., P.S. said there was damage to the roof structure on the bridge.
“The portions of the bridge that are responsible for carrying traffic are NOT damaged,” Martin said. “We are currently working with our insurance company to properly assess the damage and schedule repairs ASAP.”
Power outages were also a headache as a result of the storm.
As of 9:40 a.m. Monday, the Illuminating Company listed 20,445 customers out. On Tuesday afternoon, that was down to 4,795.
Some of the areas most affected Tuesday afternoon were Ashtabula Township, where 196 were without power, and Jefferson, where 158 were without electric.
Some of the biggest outages on Monday at 9:40 a.m. had been: Austinburg Township: 187 of 1,105; Geneva: 498 of 3,282; Geneva on the Lake: 133 of 1,778; Harpersfield Township: 144 of 1,356; Hartsgrove Township: 260 of 601; Jefferson: 450 of 1,650; and Sheffield Township: 232 of 664.
On Monday, power was still out in the area around the winery on the Strip in Geneva-on-the-Lake. The eyes of visitors to the village were drawn to a utility pole that tilted toward the road.
At Earth’s Natural Treasures, only cash was being accepted for sales due to the outage.
“Nobody has power in this whole area,” said Fink, who was manning the counter.
On the Strip, Aiden Gurich, a street department/waste water laborer, was driving a truck with a bed that was loaded up with large pieces of trees that had been sawed up in the wake of the storm. He said they came from trees located east of the township park.
“It’s definitely one for the books,” he said. “It was pretty destructive.”
He said the storm came out of nowhere full-force and then stopped.
While some speculated that a tornado went through the county, Mike Griffin of the Cleveland office of the National Weather Service said that wasn’t the case. The NWS sent out three people to the county to make the determination.
“No, we did not find any evidence (of a tornado),” he said. “We just found a microburst, a strong downburst of winds.”
He said there was a lot of tree damage, downed power lines, and trees on cars.
Griffin estimated the winds to have been between 70 to 80 mph in the Jefferson area, which he said was hardest hit.
The winds were certainly felt Sunday afternoon in Pierpont, where emergency crews were clearing a tree that had fallen on Route 7. Also in Pierpont, a tree fell on Cathy Leonard’s vehicle. A branch smashed through the windshield.
Just over the Pennsylvania line, residents in Crawford County had to deal with a tornado, however.
The NWS said its storm survey revealed that a brief EF-1 tornado occurred in Central Crawford County on June 14 with maximum wind speeds of 90 mph.
According to the NWS, damage consisted of large snapped limbs, several uprooted trees, and a broken power pole.
Steven Sekanina, mayor of Jefferson Village, said the storm “packed quite a punch” in the village.
He noted all the damage that the storm caused.
“Within the village many mature trees were toppled, some of which took down utility lines while others impacted structures including homes and fences,” he said. “Several streets were closed temporarily while cleanup efforts were initiated. Our fire department quickly mobilized to scenes both within the village as well as surrounding areas. Our streets department was also quick to respond to assist with clearing downed trees impacting roadways and sidewalks. Our police and EMS services were active and were able to respond to calls for service without interruption. We had one weather-related incident which required treatment at a local area hospital for minor injuries.”
The mayor said he was “extremely proud of the hard work and dedication our employees demonstrated during this extreme weather event.”
The Jefferson Village Council meeting that was to take place Monday night was moved to June 22.
Danielle Chismar said about 25 people were at her mother’s house on West Jefferson Street in Jefferson for a birthday party for her three-year-old niece when the storm hit.
“It started getting black out,” she recalled. Within seconds, a large tree fell over in the backyard and another in the front yard.
On Monday, she and her mother, Ginger Webker, were cleaning up the mess left by the storm.
Webker was glad it wasn’t worse.
“I’ll take this as long as everyone is OK,” she said.
Mike Fitchet, director of the Ashtabula County Emergency Management Agency, said it appeared that the storm came in toward the west end of Ashtabula County and went through Geneva, Saybrook, Jefferson, Austinburg, Pierpont and Andover.
He said there were big trees and a lot of power lines down as a result of the storm.
“It came in pretty quick and pretty strong,” he said.
He said emergency crews were kept busy and dispatchers were swamped with calls.
“But they did a great job,” he added.