Storm caused 1 fatality, injured many
Cindy Leise | The Chronicle-Telegram
Hundreds of miles from the Texas Gulf Coast, which was battered over the weekend by Hurricane Ike, Lorain County received its own taste of the storm’s destruction.
On Monday, the family of a youngster killed by a tree limb prepared for his funeral. Zachary Gott, 12, of Queen Anne Drive in Lorain, died Sunday of massive injuries after a tree limb fell onto him and split his bicycle in two.
A few miles to the northeast, 8-year-old Sharon Krueck of Lorain clung to life Monday after a tree limb fractured her skull on Sunday.
Also in Lorain, Alicia Rivera escaped being killed Sunday when a tree crushed her car on Pearl Avenue.
In Sheffield Lake, a tree limb fell Sunday and seriously injured 22-year-old Kreig Simmons, who was exiting his car.
Zachary, who was one of the five storm-related fatilities in Ohio, had just finished a bike ride with his friend Eugene Dohnenko, 14, when the tree branch fell.
Eugene, who was 10 feet away, escaped injury — but was still suffering on Monday.
“I’d rather it be me than him,” Eugene said. “The branch started cracking and I called his name, and he looked up and the branch hit him.”
Eugene called for his father, Alex, and a group of people pulled the tree branch off the boy.
“He couldn’t talk, but I saw tears roll down his face,” Eugene said.
Zachary, a sixth-grader at St. Peter Elementary School in Lorain, died at Community Regional Medical Center in Lorain after being transported there with severe head injuries.
Rivera, 37, was listed in good condition at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland on Monday, and said she didn’t remember much about when a huge tree fell on her Nissan Altima.
“All I remember is coming to and being crushed,” she said. “I have a broken vertebra in the upper neck, but I’m not paralyzed, and I’m happy to be alive.”
Sharon Krueck was injured about 8:30 p.m.
Her father, Keith, said Sharon suffered a skull fracture, head lacerations and broken ankles. She was listed in critical condition Monday night at MetroHealth.
“They have her on a ventilator and have her sedated really heavily,” Krueck said. He said doctors are encouraged with her brain scans and the family hopes “she’ll get back on her feet and live a normal life again.”
Krueck said the family was walking to survey storm damage when the tree fell near 10th Street and Long Avenue, hitting his wife and daughter.
His wife crawled from the fallen branches, and they found Sharon at the base of another tree, which had partially shielded her from the tree that fell.
“I think angels were with her,” Keith Krueck said. “Without that tree being there she may have lost her life.”
Sheffield Lake police said a limb fell onto Simmons shortly before 9 p.m. after he got out of his vehicle at Lafayette Boulevard and Richelieu Avenue. When emergency crews arrived, Kreig Simmons was face down in the road, unresponsive but breathing. He was listed in serious condition Monday night at MetroHealth.
Those four incidents were just a few of the many situations county safety officials contended with.
Tom Kelley, director of Lorain County Emergency Management Agency, said the storm sparked a barrage of calls to 911 — 95 percent of which were deemed legitimate emergency calls. Generally, 911 operators handle about 350 calls a day, but in the five hours between 3:30 and 8:30 p.m. Sunday, the office handled 568 calls, he said.
As many as 23,000 customers were without power Sunday and about 13,500 of those were still in the dark as of Monday night. Ohio Edison reported that some could remain without power until the weekend.
Hundreds of people living in manufactured homes at West Ridge Green were upset about the prospect of days without electricity.
“First they said it would be on Wednesday and now they’re saying Saturday,” said Maureen Stipe.
She was scouring the stores Monday in hopes of finding a hurricane lantern, while her 87-year-old father went to stay with a brother in Cleveland.
“He said, ‘I don’t want to spend another night in dark,’ ” she said.
Lorain police Lt. Jim McCann said Ohio Edison told police that outages in Lorain could last two or three more days. Residents without power should seek help from family or friends or the Red Cross, McCann said. If an emergency exists, residents should call 911, he said.
While thousands were still in the dark Monday night, only about a dozen remained without power in areas served by Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative, said spokesman Terry Mazzone. Initially, about 3,000 lost power in Lorain County, he said.
County Coroner Paul Matus said the combination of strong winds and leafy trees was lethal.
“The trees are like parachutes and trap the wind,” Matus said. “I can’t remember in the past 30 or 40 years where wind has caused so many deaths or serious injuries.”
Ken Killinger, of Avon Lake, whose Lake Road residence was damaged by a tree, took the damage in stride and was more upset about those who were hurt or killed.
“It’s just a piece of wood — that’s all a house is,” Killinger said.
Chronicle reporter Alison Dietz and photographers Bruce Bishop and Chuck Humel also contributed to this story.
Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.
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Filed by Cindy Leise | The Chronicle-Telegram September 16th, 2008 in Top Stories. Popularity: 9% |
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