MENTOR, Ohio — Mentor Public Schools are among those closed Friday as the community deals with damage and power outages following strong storms that hit the region late Thursday.
“Significant storm damage was experienced in the southwest sector of the city generally bounded on the north and south by SR-20 (Mentor Avenue) to SR-84 (Johnnycake Ridge Road) and SR-306 (Broadmoor Road) and SR-615 (Center Street) on the west and east,” according to a press release from the city Friday morning.
Sirens were also activated in Mentor after Lake County was under a tornado warning shortly after midnight. The National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed on Friday that an EF-1 tornado hit Mentor just after midnight.
The NWS reports that the tornado began just west of Dartmoor Road near Mentor Avenue at around 12:04 a.m. The tornado worked its way east, downing numerous large trees and damaging homes. Extensive tree damage continued east across the Great Lakes Mall property, before the tornado shifted northeast and caused additional tree and power line damage near the intersection of Johnnycake Ridge Road and Fairview Avenue. The tornado ended just south of Donald E. Kruger Park.
The tornado reached peak winds of 110 miles per hour.
“A number of city streets are impassable at this time due to downed tree limbs and wires,” officials noted. “Mentor Safety Forces teams are currently assessing damage and prioritizing response. Public works crews are focusing on reopening major throughways first before shifting to residential streets.”
Residents are urged to report all power outages directly to FirstEnergy. It’s also advised to treat all downed power lines as if they could be live. Any downed lines in Mentor should be reported to the city’s non-emergency line at 440-255-1234.
“Mentor safety and public works forces are fully staffed and operating to capacity,” according to the press release. “All calls for service have been answered.”
The Mentor Senior Center, which is located at 8484 Center Street, is available as a community shelter with water and snacks provided.
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