Flash Flood — Lorain, Ohio

2004-05-21 · near Countywide, Lorain, Ohio

Event narrative

Thunderstorms dumped torrential rains on Lorain County during the early morning hours of May 21st resulting in the worst flooding seen in the county since 1969. The southern portion of the county and especially the Wellington, Oberlin and Lagrange areas were very hard hit. Heavy rain between 2 and 5 a.m. caused the west branch of the Black River and it's tributaries to leave their banks. Rainfall rates were in excess of two inches per hour during the peak of the storm. Just over five inches of rain was measured at the water treatment plant in Lagrange with numerous three inch reports received from both the Wellington and Oberlin areas. Bucket surveys from the area indicate that as much as six inches of rain may have fallen in some parts of the county. This rainfall combined with ground already saturated from heavy rains the previous few days led to widespread flooding. Dozens of roads in southern Lorain County had to be closed. State Route 18 near Wellington was under as much as three feet of water at times. Dozens of people had to be evacuated from their homes along the Black River due to the rapidly rising water levels. Several residents had to be evacuated from their homes along Baumhart Road near Amherst. Just over 500 homes were damaged by flooding in the county. Major damage occurred to 27 homes with six others damaged enough to be declared destroyed. Hundreds of additional homes suffered basement flooding. Many roads and culverts were washed out and at least three school buildings sustained flood damage. The worst damaged of the schools was Firelands High School which had part of it's roof collapse.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5399400. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.