Flash Flood — Stark, Ohio

2014-06-18 · near Fairhope, Stark, Ohio

Event narrative

Between 4 and 6 AM on the morning of June 18th heavy rain moved over the Summit and Stark county-line. The measured rainfall amounts for 24 hours ending at 7 am that morning were: 2.09 at Akron/Canton airport, 2.35 at Berlin Lake, 1.84 in Barberton, 3.90 in Uniontown and Mayfair Road. The great majority of the rain fell that morning. This rainfall fell on already saturated ground cover from flooding less than 36 hours earlier. The East Branch of the Nimishillen Creek could not handle the excessive runoff and it flooded a large portion of Louisville. Several businesses and homes were inundated.

Wider weather episode

Portions of northern Stark County Ohio saw a series of thunderstorms with intense rain over three days. The first storm occurred primarily over the Canton/Northern Canton area with rainfall amounts around 3 inches. Between 4 AM and 6 AM on the morning of the 18th another thunderstorm rolled through north/northeast Stark County. This line of storms brought 1 to 1.5 inches of rainfall notably over the Louisville area. Later in the evening of the 18th a storm brought 1 to 1.5 inches to north/northwest Stark County. Each event unfolded with flash floods, the later ones enhanced by already saturated ground cover and backed up rivers and tributaries of the Nimishillen River. Overall an estimated 1,000 sustained some form of water damage, mostly in basements. Dozens of businesses were inundated and dozens of people were evacuated.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.8118, -81.2810)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 514850. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.