ORRVILLE, Ohio — On Friday, the streets in Orrville were clear and traffic was flowing, a big difference from how the city looked Thursday night when flooding began.
It started raining in the area around 7 p.m. Two hours later, the Orrville Fire Department received emergency calls.
“We did about 12 rescues for people who were trapped,” said Orrville Fire Chief Chris Bishop. “We had people trapped in cars and an elevator rescue. Then there were a couple of cave-ins. Basements had collapsed because there was so much water coming in.”
By 2 a.m., the number had risen to 35. Bishop said about 20 people had become homeless. There were no injuries.
The National Weather Service estimates that about 7 inches of rain fell in the region. Bishop said he hasn’t seen anything like it since the late 1960s.
“I can’t remember a flood like that since then,” he said. “It just came down.”
Adam Brooks of Orrville said it was a shock to him. What was just a few inches of water in his basement quickly turned into a few feet.
“The window just opened and then there was literally a waterfall coming down into our basement,” he said. “We have a line of debris on the wall that was 34 inches high.”
News 5 caught Brooks cleaning up, deciding what could stay and what should go while taking pictures for the insurance company. Most of his belongings were covered in mud.
“We expect a lot of things to be thrown away,” he said. “The worst will be the washing machine and dryer.”
He realized that things could have turned out very differently.
Bishop hopes it will be a long time before something like this happens again and that the night will serve as a reminder to be safe.
“We always say, ‘Turn back, don’t drown,'” he said.
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