Dillon Maag waits with his fellow YMCA Putnam County Summer Day Camp friends to head to the Leipsic public pool. The Leipsic Community Center opened its doors to the campers when Ottawa suffered a power outage.
OTTAWA — Severe storms Monday night left many residents in Putnam County without power, a problem compounded by record-setting temperatures soaring past 90 degrees that triggered a region-wide Excessive Heat Warning from the National Weather Service. Wednesday’s high of 98 degrees eclipsed Ottawa’s previous record temperature of 95 degrees for the date, set back in 1967, according to AccuWeather. Organizations across the county scrambled to take care of affected residents who needed to beat the heat.
Dozens of families were able to seek refuge at cooling stations that opened across several locations in Putnam County. Trinity United Methodist Church in Ottawa, St. Michael Catholic Church in Kalida, and the Leipsic Community Center all opened their doors to help those affected by the power outages stay safe in the face of the dangerous temperatures.
Trinity United Methodist Church welcomed 13 guests into their cooling station Tuesday afternoon, where they were able to charge their phones and get out of the sweltering summer heat. The American Red Cross provided water and snacks to help stock the center and make sure that guests were staying hydrated.
Trinity UMC also reached out to members of the parish community to make sure they were taken care of.
“We spent last evening calling different people that we knew just to make sure that they had some place to go, and if not, some of our parishioners generously opened their houses to them,” said Beverly Carr, the financial administrator at Trinity.
Around 10 families were assisted at the Leipsic Community Center. Guests were able to take advantage of the center’s open gym and public computers as well as the Summer Food Service Program, which provides free breakfast and lunch to children under 18 years of age.
The Community Center also served as a temporary location for area youth programs, with the Dance Center of Ottawa hosting its classes there Tuesday. The Putnam County YMCA also relocated its Summer Camp to the Leipsic Community Center so their youth programs could continue as scheduled despite the weather.
As of Wednesday afternoon, many area residents who lost power in the storm have seen their service restored, especially in Putnam County, which was heavily impacted by the outages. According to an update provided to the Putnam County Office of Public Safety, there were still 180 AEP customers in the county without power as of 4 p.m., down from the 1,306 customers without power Wednesday morning. Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative had restored power to all of its customers by 6 a.m. Tuesday.
The Monday storm has been officially declared a derecho (deh-REY-cho) by the Storm Prediction Center of the National Weather Service. According to the NWS, a derecho is a widespread windstorm extending at least 400 miles long and 60 miles wide, with wind gusts exceeding 58 mph along most of its length and several gusts of over 75 mph. The strongest wind gust associated with Monday’s storm was 98 mph, reported at the Fort Wayne International Airport. This wind gust broke a record at the airport which was previously set by another derecho that moved through the region on June 29, 2012.
With a weather system this large, the effects were not limited to Putnam County. Rick McCoy, Van Wert County Emergency Management Director, said that wind gusts estimated to be in excess of 80 mph caused a stretch of damage across the southern portion of the county from near Wren to east of Ohio City. A number of homes were damaged by falling trees and limbs, and some barns also sustained heavy damage. The EMA office’s lightning sensor recorded over 12,500 strikes in the region. According to McCoy, no injuries were reported from the storm system, despite its intensity.
