Multiple east Columbus neighborhoods are cleaning up Wednesday after severe weather moved through the central Ohio region on Tuesday.
In Whitehall, fallen trees brought down powerlines of surrounding houses, leaving many residents without power. Traffic lights were left dangling above the street.
Susie Hill, of Whitehall, has been without power since Tuesday afternoon when she arrived home after getting her hair done with her sister and niece.
“I'm worried about the food that I have in there. Other than that, I mean, I just, no TV. Just go to sleep. That's all you can do,” Hill said. “I have a little lantern. I had it on. I'm sitting there, I'm making little things on the wall. I'm like, okay you know what, this is crazy, just lay down and go to sleep.”
Hill said she has been living in Whitehall for the last 23 years, and this is the worst storm she has seen.
In Bexley, large tree branches smashed a car’s back window in the owner’s driveway.
Down the street, Gina Hinterschied stood outside her house where a tree punched through her roof. A tarp covered the hole, but other debris on the house and in the driveway made clean up difficult.
“We are thankful that no one was hurt and that we do have power. So, it's just, we have buckets all over the house. We're catching leaks, you know, in the ceiling initially. Now that that tarps up, it has helped a lot. Also, that the rain stopped, so hopefully it won't rain anymore,” Hinterschied said.
Hinterschied said her family is unable to move their cars because fallen power lines and tree limbs are now in her backyard.
“I think from what I've been told is I think our place is kind of the worst one in this neighborhood,” Hinterschied said. “We can’t even go through the backdoor, and we just bought a new gas grill that’s under that. It’s probably somewhere.”
In Olde Town East, sides of buildings collapsed sending bricks, tree branches, bits of plastic and broken glass into the streets.
William Lane helped clean up a fallen brick chimney with his demolition team.
“We're out here to help restore, you know what I'm saying, a lot of property. Man, it's damaged bad, where I feel kind of bad for these people. You know, it's everywhere. I mean, when you look at it, man, it's just everywhere,” Lane said.
The National Weather Service believes a derecho ripped through Columbus Tuesday, according to its website. A derecho is a straight-lined windstorm with severe thunderstorms and destructive winds, that are comparable to tornadoes or hurricanes.
The National Weather Service expects more rain through the rest of Wednesday.
