Ohio Tornado Victims View Destruction

A day after a tornado sliced through Cincinnati’s northern suburbs, killing four and destroying hundreds of homes, residents on Saturday hurried to salvage their belongings as workers cleared the debris.

Kent Meiser pushed his dented lawn mower off the concrete slab that used to be his garage, maneuvered through piles of debris and parked it on his front lawn.

While revving chain saws and rumbling repair trucks blended into a background din, Meiser and his wife, Vicki, picked through what was left of their home.

“We lost the garage and the whole roof. They’re probably going to have to raze it and start over,” Meiser said. “We’re just trying to move things along as fast as possible.”

The state Emergency Management Agency estimated Saturday that 900 homes were damaged in Hamilton, Clinton and Warren counties in southwest Ohio. Red Cross shelters remained open while police sealed off streets so repair crews could restore electricity and clear debris.

The predawn storm raced across the Midwest. A tornado briefly touched down, jumped back up and came down with full fury in Blue Ash and Montgomery, two upscale suburbs.

The National Weather Service said it had received reports of 64 tornadoes in Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Illinois on Thursday and Friday.

Two motorists were killed in Ohio when their vehicles flipped off the highway, and a couple were killed when the tornado leveled their house in Montgomery.

The storm also claimed two lives in Illinois and another in Missouri.

In Blue Ash, the tornado tore through the Meisers’ windows. Neighbors on one side suffered only minor damage, and the neighbors on the other side had portions of their roof scraped off.

Across the street, Suzanne Smith’s condominium suffered only minor damage: a downed maple tree, a piece of the eaves missing. Smith heard the wind howl, rode out the storm and emerged from her condo to see the frightening site across the street.

“I opened the front door and looked over there and I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I said, ‘Lord, don’t let me see Vicki and her husband trapped.’ I went over there and when I got there she screamed out, ‘We’re OK.’ ”

Even those who escaped Friday’s storm shuddered when they heard the forecast.

“I’m just very lucky, but you know what?” Smith said. “We’re supposed to get more storms at 3 a.m.”