Second microburst in 3 years ravages Cleveland Heights all over again

Fallen tree branch crushes roof of car

A Sept. 13 microburst sheared trees and damaged these cars parked along Coleridge Road in Cleveland Heights. Cleanup efforts continued this week. (Tom Jewell, special to cleveland.com)Tom Jewell/Special to cleveland.com

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- City officials took issue Monday (Sept. 16) with criticism that they were not maintaining enough of a Facebook presence in the aftermath of a Friday the 13th microburst storm.

The rebuke came from Citizens for an Elected Mayor campaign secretary Michael Bennett at Monday’s council meeting, as city and utility crews remained swamped in an overtime cleanup effort that still included roughly 1,300 homes without power -- including internet.

“In staying focused on operations, I have not been able to able to put up ‘happy posts’ while people’s lives were still in shambles,” City Manager Tanisha Briley said.

Briley added that she had been busy walking Coleridge, Scarborough and Stillman roads, checking on residents, as city crews hit the streets in the wake of the storm that shut off power to roughly 61,000 customers across Cuyahoga County around 8:30 p.m. Friday (Sept. 13).

With 100 calls for service that night -- including downed trees on houses, streets and parked cars -- Briley said she found the city’s response “impressive and inspiring. In the midst of all that devastation, I was in awe.”

The initial effort focused on clearing roadways of obstacles and directing traffic around them as chainsaws were wielded and heavy machinery deployed, Briley said, noting the coordination and camaraderie that it took.

The National Weather Service on Sunday (Sept. 15) confirmed that for the second time in three years, the city had been hit with a microburst, where wind speeds can reach or exceed 100 mph -- roughly equivalent to an EF-1 Class tornado, Vice Mayor Melissa Yasinow said.

“We were all over Facebook with police, fire and the city, as well as NextDoor (online neighborhood social media),” Yasinow added today (Sept. 17).

“And Tanisha, Mayor Carol Roe, and council members Craig Cobb and Mary Dunbar went out knocking on doors in the hardest-hit areas to check and make sure that people were still alive and safe and able to exit and enter their homes.”

Shaker also hit hard

Across the border and also in the microburst’s path were sections of Shaker Heights, where Mayor David Weiss reported that at the height of the storm, roughly 1.5 inches of rain fell in just 15 minutes -- enough to refill Green Lake, which had been drained for dam repairs.

In Shaker, trees were reported down in more than 50 locations, some taking power lines down as well, with the most significant damage around Lower Shaker Lake.

Also thanking Shaker's first responders, Weiss said in an email to residents Monday that winds had likely exceeded 70 mph through the northwest quadrant of the city, where public works crews expected to continue picking up brush and branches for at least another week.

"We are so fortunate that there were no storm-related injuries reported," Weiss added.

Heights Music Hop affected

In response to another of Bennett’s critiques, Briley also apologized for not attending the Heights Music Hop for its third and final night in the Cedar-Lee district on Saturday night (Sept. 14).

She noted that she drove past the festivities on her way to her office to put together another one of her twice-daily updates on the city's website.

Future Heights Executive Director Deanna Bremer Fisher said that some sections of Cedar-Lee were still without power Saturday night, although some venues improvised with acoustic music.

Bremer Fisher added that the finale of the Heights Music Hop in the Cedar-Fairmount district was abruptly cut short on Friday night as the storm swept past.

"We ran inside the Fairmount just as the torrential downpour hit, and we lost power as the last band was getting set to play," she noted.

The nonprofit usually loses money on the $30,000 it costs to put on the annual music hop, “and we are on track to do so again,” Bremer told council.

When life gives you lemons ...

Although The Rib Cage Smokehouse and Bar on Cedar-Lee was still without power on Sept. 14, that didn’t stop the owners from going ahead with their scheduled pig roast in the parking lot, coinciding with the annual Heights Music Hop.

Roe, who attended two out of the three Heights Music Hops, pointed out that she was posting on her own Facebook page throughout the tumultuous weekend.

She said she had fully expected a Sunday block party on Essex Road to be canceled due to the power outage. But when Roe drove past Essex, she saw the neighbors congregating.

“I cannot say enough about the resiliency of Cleveland Heights residents,” Roe noted Monday. “They went ahead with it, saying ‘we have no electricity, so we all have to cook outside anyway -- we might as well have a party.’”

Electrical crew working to repair downed power lines in Cleveland Heights

Electrical crews continued work Sept. 16 on downed power lines in Cleveland Heights -- these at Coventry Road and Fairmount Boulevard -- that remained three days after a microburst storm cell swept through town. (Tom Jewell, special to cleveland.com)Tom Jewell/Special to cleveland.com

Cleveland Heights officials had no compilation yet of any overtime costs, tonnage of debris collected or damages assessed as cleanup efforts continued through the week.

As for whether the latest microburst was worse than the storm cell that hit the city on Aug. 9, 2016, and cost the city at least $400,000 for emergency response and cleanup, Briley said that comparisons are odious.

"When it's a microburst, it's always bad," Briley said.

Yasinow added that she was "deeply proud and thankful" for all of the effort put forth by city police, firefighters and public works crews over the weekend and beyond.

Local attorney Lee Chilcote concurred, saying he walked the streets between Cedar-Fairmount and Cedar-Lee at sunrise on Saturday to see the damage for himself.

“Cleveland Heights was all over the cleanup and it was great to see,” Chilcote said.

See more Sun Press news here.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.