Flash Flood — Mahoning, Ohio

2015-06-23 · near Boardman, Mahoning, Ohio

Event narrative

Heavy rainfall of 1.5 to 2.5 inches of rain fell across mainly central Mahoning County during the morning of June 23rd. Lowellville received significant damage to McGill Street between Walnut and Wood Streets with the road considered to be a total loss. The drainage system could not handle the flow of water and caused the road to buckle in several locations. Several streets were flooded in Lowellville, Struthers, and Boardman. Numerous retention ponds, back yards, and basements were also flooded. The Yellow Creek in Struthers overflowed it's banks. In Poland Township the Canterbury Creek also flooded some 13 homes on their first floor. An unofficial rain gauge in the area recorded near 5 inches of rainfall from the event. Another housing development prone to flooding saw 100 homes inundated with water up to the electric boxes.

Wider weather episode

In the early morning hours of June 23, a cluster of thunderstorms developed over Lake Erie. These storms moved ashore off of Lake Erie around 4am with extensive tree damage to the immediate lake shore counties around the Cleveland metro area. Damage was reported in Avon Lake and Madison. The ASOS at Burke Lakefront Airport also reported a wind gust of 52 mph. Shortly thereafter, a residual line of thunderstorms moved across Lake Erie onto the lakeshore. This line of storms had produced damage in Michigan, including several tornadoes. The area impacted from the first round of thunderstorms from Avon Point to Geneva was also impacted by this next round. Eastlake had the worst damage from these storms as over 30 large trees were knocked down with several trees landing on homes, businesses, and vehicles. The three rounds of thunderstorms caused flooding issues in Avon Lake and Bay Village, west of Cleveland. Many basements flooded in these towns and some roads were closed due to high water. Many of these communities had 2 inches of rain in 2 to 3 hours.

Heavy rainfall of 1.5 to 2.5 inches of rain fell across mainly central Mahoning County during the morning of June 23rd. Lowellville received significant damage to McGill Street between Walnut and Wood Streets with the road considered to be a total loss. The drainage system could not handle the flow of water and caused the road to buckle in several locations.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.0300, -80.6800)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 591968. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.