LISBON, Ohio – Floodwaters rushed through rural northeast Ohio on Saturday, ripping houses from their foundations and tearing a 65-foot deep crater into a road, authorities said.
A couple were killed in a crash on a rain-drenched highway, while a man whose home was carried off was found unharmed in a tree, authorities said.
“One minute the creek was rising slowly, and the next minute it was a total disaster,” Columbiana County Sheriff David Smith said.
Several homes were pulled off their foundations, forcing about 60 people to seek shelter at a high school in Lisbon, Smith said.
The rushing water left a hole about 65 feet deep and 125 feet wide in a road near Salem, and a car that plunged into the crater landed on its top in a creek. The two people inside the car were not hurt, said Lt. William Thompson of the State Highway Patrol’s Lisbon post.
“We’re not sure if they were on the road when it washed away or if they drove over the cliff down into the ravine,” Thompson said.
The storm also contributed to a traffic collision that killed a couple on the Ohio Turnpike south of Youngstown. David and Laura Martin, both 50, died when their car ran off the road in heavy rain, crossed the median and hit a truck filled with gravel in the oncoming lanes.
Southwest of Youngstown, rising water swept away part of the entrance road to Guilford Lake State Park and forced campers to abandon the park.
Six inches of rain fell in just six hours Friday night and Saturday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
About 4,000 people in the area did not have electricity Saturday, and the town of Lisbon does not have water because several major water mains broke in the storm, Smith said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
