Flood — Seneca, Ohio

2007-08-20 to 2007-08-21 · near Bettsville, Seneca, Ohio

Event narrative

Heavy thunderstorm rains fell on Seneca County on August 19th through the 21st. Widespread flooding occurred across the county with the worst conditions reported in northern Seneca County. A spotter in the northwestern corner of the county reported 6.30 inches of rain between 8 am on the 19th and 3 pm on the 20th. A Cooperative Observer in Tiffin measured a three day total of 4.45 inches. Significant flooding occurred along all of the major rivers and steams in the county. The Sandusky River left it's banks in Tiffin and flooded portions of 5th and 6th Avenues. Many homes on these streets were damaged by flooding. Wolf Creek left it's bank near Bettsville and caused a lot of damage. At least two homes in the town had to be evacuated because of flooding. State Route 12 had to be closed because of flood waters up to three feet deep. On the 21st, a nursing home north of McCutchenville had to be partially evacuated because of rising flood waters. During this event, one home was damaged enough by the flooding to be declared destroyed with another seven homes damaged enough to be uninhabitable. Hundreds of additional homes in the county sustained lesser amounts of damage, mainly from basement flooding. Dozens of streets and highways in the county had to be closed because of flooding. Erosion and standing water caused considerable damage to agricultural interests in the county.

Wider weather episode

Moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin interacted with a stationary front to cause heavy rain producing thunderstorms over portions of northern Ohio. The thunderstorms trained across Wyanodot, Hancock, Crawford and Richland Counties during the early morning hours of August 21st. Catastrophic flooding occurred in all of these counties.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.2500, -83.2300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 56524. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.