Flash Flood — Lucas, Ohio

2006-06-21 to 2006-06-22 · near Countywide, Lucas, Ohio

Event narrative

Thunderstorms dumped torrential rainfall on Lucas County during the evening hours of June 21st. Rainall rates with the stronger storms exceeded 3 inches per hour. A peak rainfall total of 7.25 inches was measured near the University of Toledo. Other totals from across the county included: 5.15 inches in West Toledo; 5.01 inches in Richfield Township; 4.06 inches in downtown Toledo and 2.72 inches at Toledo Express Airport. Most of this rain fell between 7 and 10 p.m., and a spotter in West Toledo measured 3.4 inches of rain between 7 and 8:30 p.m. Devastating flash flooding occurred across the county with Toledo, Maumee and Sylvania especially hard hit. Roads and streets throughout the county were turned into rivers. Hundreds of vehicles became stranded in the flood waters and emergency responders performed dozens of boat rescues. Shantee Creek left it's banks causing extensive damage along Crawford and Poinsetta Avenues. Many stores at the Franklin Park Mall and dozens of homes nearby were damaged by flooding after a drainage ditch along Monroe Street (State Route 51) overflowed. Floodwaters in these areas were reported to be several feet in depth. Extensive damage was also reported on Longwood Avenue. Dozens of roads and streets had to be closed with many of them under as much as four feet of water. Two homes were destroyed in Lucas County during this event with 125 homes sustaining major damage and around 200 homes suffering minor damage. An additional 1,000 homes sustained damage from basement or nuisance flooding. The City of Toledo alone spent over $250,000 responding to this event. Local officials stated that this was the worst flooding seen in the area since July 4th, 1969.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5518512. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.