ZANESVILLE – Countless trees were knocked down. Guard rails were crushed. Buildings were ripped up and overturned. Two cows got struck by lightning and strong winds ripped across Ohio 60 south near Shelly & Sands, OK Coal & Concrete and Mar-Zane.
The severe thunderstorms from July 21 brought a record-breaking rainfall of nearly 2.25 inches in Zanesville and tornado warnings from the National Weather Service from 2:36 to 4 p.m. It also brought flooding and heavy wind damage in South Zanesville, Duncan Falls, Philo and the surrounding areas.
The stretch of Ohio 60 between the Shelly & Sands corporate office and training center was a hotspot for extensive wind damage. Trees were either uprooted, knocked over or twisted off from the top and thrown elsewhere. Signs from OK Coal & Concrete and Mar-Zane were shattered. Nearby streams and gullies were rushing with floodwaters.
“It’s all pretty widespread,” said Muskingum County EMA Director Jeff Jadwin on the heavy flooding. “It’s put down a lot of rain.”
While some outlets have reported a tornado touched down in Muskingum County, the Times Recorder has been unable to interpedently verify that with the National Weather Service as of 12:30 p.m. July 22.
The National Weather Service out of Pittsburgh confirmed that Zanesville’s 2.24-inch daily rainfall on July 21 was a new record. The previous was 2.03 inches in 1931. The strongest wind speeds were measured at 23 miles per hour with the most powerful gusts as high as 43 miles per hour, according to the NWS.
South Zanesville and Old River Road were two areas hit especially hard, according to Jadwin and South Zanesville Fire Chief Russell Taylor. In fact, Ohio 60 was temporarily closed after trees blocked all four lanes, according to Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Luzt and Old River Road was impassable at various points, as well, Taylor said.
The Gratiot and Hopewell areas also got hit hard, according to Jadwin. A mini storage unit on Mt. Perry Road was ripped up, swept away and flipped over, he noted. There was notable tree damage at the Flint Ridge park, too, and the two cows hit by lightning were on Poplar Forks Road, he added.
On July 21, customers without power ranged from around 1,650 at around 4:30 p.m. in or around South Zanesville, Philo and Duncan Falls, and it later jumped up to more than 2,000 later in the afternoon, according to AEP’s power outage map.
Power was restored to some, still 900 were still in the dark as of noon July 22, according to the map. Cleaning crews and workers included ODOT, the Muskingum County EMA, County Highway, several townships and some cities.
Shawn Digity is a reporter for the Zanesville Times Recorder. He can be emailed at sdigity@usatodayco.com or found on X at @ShawnDigityZTR.
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Flooding, power outages and wind damage follow powerful storms in Muskingum Co.
Reporting by Shawn Digity, Zanesville Times Recorder / Zanesville Times Recorder
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Shawn Digity, Zanesville Times Recorder | USA TODAY Network
