The time was 8:00 P.M. on March 14, 2024, chemistry Teacher Del Ehemann was at Campbell County Conservation District Dinner when she was given an alert on her phone; a tornado warning.
Ehemann texted her husband to warn their neighbors and friends at Indian Lake, and she didn’t think too much about it afterward. Even after she got back, her husband said that the electricity went out, but nothing else really happened.
Only a few minutes later, her neighbors called to tell her that their house was gone.
An EF-3 level tornado barreled through Lakeview, Ohio, causing widespread destruction. The tornado claimed three lives total. Horrifically, two bodies were found in trees around Ehemann’s neighborhood. It’s hard to imagine how much of a visceral sight it must have been.
“There were phone alerts if people had them on, and they had sirens, but many people either did not hear the sirens or paid no attention to them,” Ehemann stated.
There were 27 reported injuries from the Lakeview Hills tornado.
Ehemann exclaimed: “I wish I could have made it skip over the entire area. Our neighbors have lost everything, and most live there all year round.”
The tornado, according to Weather.gov, rampaged for 47 minutes across 31.9 miles of land. It started east of I-75, making a path through Auglaize County and ending near Logan County.
The National Weather Service (NWS) reported that the tornado reached its peak of 155 mph, which is around the middle range of an EF-3 tornado, around Lakeview Hills.
Ehemann said that Lakeview Hills was the place her husband grew up going to every summer, and the place she spent her summers for 34 years.
The tornado was part of a major storm that swept through the Midwest that day. Damage was catastrophic, but thankfully casualties were minimal for the overall storm cell. There were a total of seven confirmed tornadoes across the tri-state area. The NWS stated that the tornadoes affected a combined 145 miles.
If you would like to help fund support for affected areas, please donate to the Red Cross or other disaster relief organizations.