Storm Rips Through Lakewood, 60 Homes Without Power

A storm that ripped through Lakewood on Wednesday afternoon tore down trees, caused traffic backups and left about 60 homes without power.

Compare that to the hundreds of homes without power in neighboring Rocky River and in the Edgewater neighborhood of Cleveland.

“These storms are relentless, they keep coming at us,” said Lakewood Mayor Michael Summers. “These trees just keep getting older and older.”

He said there were about 60 homes without power following the storm.

According to the FirstEnergy power outage map, the outages were scattered around the city.

“By comparison, we’re in pretty good shape.”

Several large tree limbs were toppled around the city, around the city, but there were no reports of injuries.

Dozens of residents on Arthur Avenue rallied together to help a neighbor, whose hulking tree had a large limb fall onto the street and sidewalk.

Police blocked the intersection near Lake and Lakeland avenues at around 5 p.m., for what appeared to be a downed power line, and rerouted traffic to Clifton Boulevard.

FirstEnergy crews blocked traffic at the intersection of Cove Avenue and Clifton Boulevard to repair a power line.

Sirens blared around the city all afternoon. Winds at high speeds knocked over dozens of large garbage bins, sweeping them into the streets.

Stay tuned to Lakewood Patch for updates.

Nearly all of Northeast Ohio region is under a flood warning overnight Wednesday, the National Weather Service reports:

Cuyahoga County is also under a flash flood warning until 8 p.m. Wednesday, and the rest of Northeast Ohio is under a flash flood watch until 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Following hail and tornado warnings in areas of the region this afternoon, slow moving thunderstorms are moving across the region, dropping heavy rainfall faster than two inches per hour.

This will easily overwhelm sewer systems, the service adds, and cause flooding in the region. Creeks and rivers are especially susceptible to flooding.

Rain will continue throughout the night across Northeast Ohio, but Thursday is expected to be mostly sunny with a high of 76 degrees.