Lakemore flooded after heavy downpour
By Maria Lindsay
LAKEMORE — Much of the Village of Lakemore was under water after almost 6 inches of rain fell in less than two hours during a late afternoon storm July 31.
Close to three-quarters of the village’s roads were affected by the subsequent flooding, according to Village Administrator Bill Bookman.
“This whole town was under water,” Bookman said. “This is the worst I have ever seen.”
An assessment from the Summit
County Red Cross a day after the storm reported that
more than 90 homes suffered minor damage,
10 were severely damaged and two were destroyed.
Lakemore Fire Chief C.C. Bittner stated no injuries were reported as a result of the flooding.
Tom Strittmatter, a First Street homeowner, said floodwaters flowed toward Springfield Lake but were trapped from reaching it by a rise of land at Church Street.
“The water was flowing down Front Street like a river,” he said.
Bookman said the flooding closed a 12-block stretch of roads for most of the evening. Front Street was hit the worst, but the neighborhoods between Lakeside and Lake roads and Sanitarium Road, First and Seventh streets, and the neighborhood west of Springfield High School, including roads between Seneca all the way to Pawnee Drive and also parts of Main Street northeast to Meadows, Chelsea and Michaels streets, also were affected by the heavy rain.
Strittmatter said the basement walls of his son’s Raymond Street home collapsed from the inside because of the flooding, but a friend’s property just 1-1/2 mile away was unaffected by the flooding.
“I have never seen it rain so hard in just one spot,” Strittmatter said.
The Summit County Red Cross responded
within an hour of the flooding
and set up a temporary shelter at the Edwin Shaw Rehabilitation
Hospital for residents whose homes were inundated with
water. Residents returned to their homes or left to
stay with friends by early morning, after much of the
floodwaters had receded.
Bittner said about 30 firefighters
from the Lakemore, Coventry, Springfield and Uniontown
fire departments worked until 4 a.m. to pump water out
of basements and help residents hit by the deluge.
The morning after the storm,
residents pulled soaked items from basements and homes,
some of which had as much as 3 feet of water, and streets
were lined with ruined furniture, mattresses, appliances
and other household items.
“Neighbors were out helping
each other clean up, and the Red Cross was driving down
each street offering us food and water,” said
Strittmatter. “They did a
real good job helping us out.”
The Red Cross handed out more
than 220 meals, 150 snacks, water and 50 clean-up kits
to flood victims, according to Jackie Zavodney, Red
Cross communications representative.
Bookman reported that only a
few fields and lawns still had standing water 24 hours
after the storm hit. He also said officials from the
Summit County chapter of the Emergency Management Association
were in Lakemore Aug. 1 to assess the flood damage.
A basement wall in this Raymond
Street home collapsed inward after almost 2 feet of
floodwaters flowed into the basement.
Photo:
Maria Lindsay
Many Lakemore residents are still
cleaning up and drying out after the July 31 flooding.
Many streets were lined with ruined household items,
such as this one awaiting trash pickup.
Photo: Maria Lindsay
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