EMA officials review events so far in 2021

CELINA - An EF2 tornado that touched down near Fort Recovery on June 18 inflicted structural damage but was not as strong as two other tornados that tore through Mercer County in recent years.

"It's becoming an every-two-year-thing - '17, '19, '21," said Mike Robbins, director of Mercer County Emergency Management Agency, about tornado activity. "This was not the 2017 or 2019 tornado. It wasn't as strong. It wasn't as populated (of an) area. But it did a lot of damage."

Robbins at this week's EMA advisory board meeting discussed the Fort Recovery tornado during an overview of emergency situations and hazardous material spills that have occurred so far in 2021. This was the first time the board had convened in some time due to the pandemic.

"Luckily it stayed just a little bit north of Fort Recovery," Robbins said, noting that the Fort Recovery Jubilee was going on when the tornado hit.

The EF2 tornado packed wind speeds up to 115 mph. No injuries were reported but the tornado, considered strong on the six-tiered Enhanced Fujita Scale, left a trail of destruction over a 5.7-mile path that was 200 yards wide at its maximum. The twister also damaging at least 10 homes and 30 agricultural outbuildings including barns, shops and sheds.

Damage to six of the homes was characterized as minor based on Federal Emergency Management Agency standards, meaning they had repairable, non-structural damage. For instance, a home missing half its roof could still be considered having minor damage as long as the rafters are intact, Robbins explained. Four homes were determined to have been affected with mostly cosmetic damage.

Robbins did not have a total damage estimate but said it didn't rise to a level where FEMA would offer financial assistance. Nor did it trigger a disaster declaration by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Cleanup efforts began almost immediately afterward, Robbins said.

"Farmers were bringing stock trailers in to help with the cattle that were loose," he said.

Weather services officials who arrived the next day were surprised to find most farm fields clear of debris, he said.

On Memorial Day in 2019, a twister tore up northwestern Celina and adjacent areas and left one person dead. It was an EF3 tornado with top wind speeds of 150 mph that followed an 11 mile path, according to the National Weather Service of Wilmington. Forty-three homes and one business were destroyed and more homes were severely damaged, Robbins had said at the time.

Two tornadoes touched down in Mercer County on Nov. 5, 2017, wreaking havoc on businesses and residences in eastern Celina and homes and agricultural buildings in Washington Township, causing eight non-life-threatening injuries.

Speaking to the COVID-19 pandemic, Robbins said his agency played a limited role with what he characterized as a mostly healthcare operation.

"It was real busy to begin with when the (Coldwater) hospital was setting up the tents and they needed generators and cots, and we got all that set up," he said. "Once we got the (personal protection equipment) line set up, I wasn't busy again until we started doing vaccinations and helped set that up."

Some questions arose during the EMA advisory board meeting about allowable uses of COVID-related American Rescue Plan Act funds, specifically for infrastructure.

State, local and tribal governments are expected to use the money to support public health expenditures, address negative economic impacts cause by the public health emergency, replace lost public sector revenue, provide premium pay for essential workers and invest in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

"I don't know that anybody really is exactly familiar with it at this point yet," said Mercer County Commissioner Greg Homan. "There's supposed to be a component that allows for some water, sewer projects directly."

Homan said Commissioners are not rushing any decisions.

Mercer County's government has received $3.9 million, its first installment of American Rescue Plan Act funds. A second allocation of the same amount will arrive a year later, together providing nearly $8 million.

Commissioners on Tuesday signed off on a request to spend $86,056.34 in American Rescue Plan Act funds toward a $286,000 upgrade of the county common pleas court's online record system and its adult probation department's case management system. The upgrades will allow for remote access to the systems, thus facilitating social distancing.
  This was the first time commissioners have authorized use of the funds for an expense, commissioner Rick Muhlenkamp said Tuesday.

Also during the meeting, Robbins discussed a May 27 crop duster plane crash that left a Defiance man with serious injuries. Pilot Mark J. Gaerte, 43, had left from Lakefield Airport near Montezuma in a Grumman G-164B bi wing aircraft, according to information provided by the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Shortly after takeoff, the plane failed to gain altitude and went down in a marsh southeast of the runway. The plane overturned and came to a rest upside down, partially in Beaver Creek.

The pilot initially was listed in critical condition at Miami Valley Hospital.

However, EMA administrative assistant Sheryle Kuhn said it was revealed at a Lakefield Airport Authority meeting that the pilot is now in a backbrace but is reportedly OK.

"(The plane) ended up in Beaver Creek but it dumped a lot of its chemical in the new wetlands," Robbins said. "The fungicide and the insecticide's water soluble. It kind of hung in once place. You could kind of see it. So they did get that vacuumed out."

A company contracted by the pilot's insurance company removed the chemicals, Robbins said. He has not heard of any other issues arising from the spill since then.