Talk:Ohio Fireworks Derecho

Eye-witness account
A colleague of mine was an eye-witness to this event. (Actually, two, but one does not wish to go on record.) He is willing to provide a written account of what he experienced, for inclusion in this article. He understands that, while he is providing this information anonymously, with me as his interlocutor, his account will be subject to any necessary adjustments to bring it more in line with Wikipedia standards.

I explained to him that the best information is objective, although subjective information might be prefaced with phrases like "one witness observed" or some such.

I can provide an image of his written account, for an editor who wishes to verify it. For the sake of convenience and reference, I will also include a text version of it on this page. 96.14.149.140 (talk) 06:28, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Here is the eye-witness account:

"July fourth, 1969"

Our group of seventeen adults and teenagers was spending a hot summer holiday at Cedar Point Amusement Park outside Sandusky, Ohio. Most of our group were from out of state and had never been to a park like this one. They wanted to see everything.

After criss-crossing the main causeway for several hours, they decided to ride the "Space Needle." This ride took you up ten stories and rotated twice before bringing you back down. On that ride we saw the line of extremely dark clouds on the northern horizon over Lake Erie. Since showers had been predicted, we didn't pay much attention.

Less than two hours later, the storm slammed into the little peninsula. Everything that was not secured was blown ahead of the winds that we now know were in excess of one hundred miles an hour.

To the tune of concession stands being banged shut, we ran for the picnic pavilions near the front gate. Once there, we watched the storm which included lightning and waterspouts dancing over the lake.

When the park closed, about three hours later, we started the adventure of finding our cars. Carrying two eighty quart coolers, and what had been dry clothing and towels, it only took another half an hour.

Our trip back to Mansfield was interrupted by inland flooding and power outages. After a night in a, thankfully, open Baptist Church, we followed a few flooded roads until we arrived just after noon the next day (July fifth). 96.14.144.215 (talk) 21:34, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Six tornadoes spawned by storm
Six tornadoes were spawned by this storm including an F3 tornado in Flat Rock, Michigan. I don't really know if the tornadoes were actually spawned by the derecho. I know that on July 15, 1980 the Western Wisconsin Derecho spawned ten tornadoes (maximum F3 strength) in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and on September 7, 1998 the New York City Labor Day Derecho spawned four tornadoes including an F2 tornado in Lynbrook, New York. So I don't see how the tornadoes wouldn't have been associated with this storm. The 1969 Flat Rock, Michigan tornado, the 1980 F3 Eau Claire, Wisconsin tornado and the 1998 Lynbrook tornado all caused between 500,000 and 5 million dollars in property damage.--Kevjgav (talk) 17:43, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

I've edited the article so that it actually says that the F3 tornado hit the Detroit suburb of Flat Rock. In the source given, you can see it on the map.--Kevjgav (talk) 21:43, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

And I also updated the source so that it specifically shows this.--Kevjgav (talk) 21:48, 13 May 2015 (UTC)