BROWN COUNTY, Ohio — Emergency managers think a tornado ripped through Brown County Wednesday night, but concerns about coronavirus are changing the way they get confirmation.
There was plenty of damage to clean up Thursday, including a roof blown off a warehouse. But the National Weather Service is limiting how many people it sends into communities because of the highly-contagious virus and instead is asking counties to take photos of the hardest hit areas.
Kevin Dugan thinks he shot video of a tornado in Aberdeen as winds walloped his mom and dad’s mobile home as they took shelter.
“Here it is. This is it. Look at that rotation,” Dugan yelled on the video.
“Oh my god! Tree’s on the house! Dad, come on!”
A tree had landed in the living room. Carol Dugan seemed to take it in stride.
“Our bedrooms are fine,” she told WCPO 9 News on Thursday. “God wanted us to have a place to sleep last night, so he just took the living room and kitchen."
Aberdeen firefighters say four families lost homes.
At Donny’s Auto Repair, debris from a neighbor’s roof blocked the door and littered the lot, and cars Donny Lyons Jr. had fixed to sell now need new windows.
“I don't where to begin,” Lyons said. “I mean, it's devastating for real."
In Hamersville, David Kemmeter heard the winds howling before they toppled and crushed his camper.
"Man, we heard this awful noise,” he said. “It must have been that thing rolling over."
The winds moved Kemmeter’s shed, peeled back his roof and ripped up his neighbor’s barn, strewing metal across his yard.
"We're glad we're still here. I expected it to be worse,” Kemmeter said.
Brown County emergency managers reported no one hurt, just residents picking up the pieces.
