Tornado Touches Down In Wintersville, Ohio, Damaging 23 Homes
JEFFERSON COUNTY, OHIO (KDKA) - A tornado touched down in Wintersville, Ohio, and damaged 25 structures on Thursday night.
Wintersville fire chief Rob Herrington said the line of damage is a mile long in the Bantam Ridge Road area. He said the structures damaged include 23 houses, one business and one church. Five of the homes are total losses.
Herrington said many people were in their homes when the twister hit. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
The roof of a home in the 800 block of Bantam Ridge Road was torn off and the walls are caving in. On the same street, there were trees on houses, a garage roof on top of a house and more homes with roofs missing. Herrington said a church caught fire, possibly after being hit by lightning.
Michelle Moodie lives nearby, and she captured cellphone video when the apparent tornado was forming right before 6 p.m. She said the clouds were rotating, debris was flying around and sparks were flashing as the twister struck what was like power lines and transformers.
WATCH: Possible Tornado
Hundreds of residents in Jefferson County lost power. Herrington said many power lines came down and crews were removing debris off power lines.
