COLUMBUS – Flooding from heavy rains Tuesday afternoon was not as bad as it had been the previous two days but Ohioans watched waters rise on Tuesday as another line of strong storms moved across the state dumping heavy rains on saturated ground and felling trees with high winds.
It took two crews to rescue one person from the Scioto River in Delaware County: A second team had to be sent to the aid of the first, according to WBNS 10-TV.
The Concord Township Fire Department told the television station the person had become stranded on an island south of the O’Shaughnessy Dam just after 9:00 p.m.
A rescue boat was sent to get the person but started taking on water and began to sink, a Concord Township Fire Captain told the station.
A second team was sent in to rescue the first team along with the stranded person and everyone made it to dry land safely.
In central Ohio, trees were knocked down at the Blendon Park condominium complex near Gahanna and there were numerous reports of downed tree limbs
The recent spate of storms prompted the head of a statewide insurance industry group to remind Ohioans to review their homeowner’s insurance policies to make sure they have adequate coverage for damage from storms.
When a home’s value increases, it can affect an insurance claim, says Dan Kelso, president of the Ohio Insurance Institute, who recommends an annual review.
“If you have coverage that’s less than 80 percent of the total value of your property, when you go settle a claim, the claim is not going to be for 100 percent of the loss,” he said. “So, you have to keep your valuation on the coverage of your policy somewhat equivalent to the market value of that property.”
The Tuesday storm dumped 0.72 inches of rain at the airport, said Kristen Cassady, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. It pushes the rain total to 3.94 inches for the month, which is about 2.5 inches above average for mid-July, Cassady told the Columbus Dispatch.
The sudden deluge created a number of trouble spots for motorists on sections of Harrisburg Pike, Hilliard-Rome and Big Run roads, Southwestern Boulevard, State Route 315 around Henderson Road, Rte. 62 in Grove City, neighborhoods on the West Side of Columbus, and Tremont and other roads in Upper Arlington.
In Upper Arlington, a woman and a child were stranded when the car the woman was driving became stuck in knee-deep water at Canterbury and Leeds roads around 2:00 p.m., the newspaper reported. The woman got out and an officer carried the child out, Upper Arlington police said.
Ohio Dominican University canceled evening classes because of a power outage on campus.
At one point, American Electric Power reported that about 6,000 of its customers were without power.
Meanwhile, as crews prepare to resume searching for people who were still missing in flood-plagued eastern Kentucky.
National Guard vehicles and heavy equipment, including excavators and dump trucks, were heading into the hardest hit areas early Wednesday morning.
Two people were killed and six disappeared in a raging flood that hit the area Monday afternoon.
Rescue crews combing the hilly Appalachian terrain Tuesday were hampered by more heavy rains, swarming mosquitoes, soupy humidity and knee-deep mud.
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear declared a state of emergency to give local officials immediate access to state resources to assist in recovery efforts.
Authorities say the search area stretches more than 8 miles, from the town of Flat Gap south to Staffordsville — a rural area with 500 homes and 1,200 residents.