LOGAN COUNTY, OH (WLIO) - Logan County Sheriff's Office confirms three deaths in suspected tornado and storms that damaged homes.
Sheriff Randall Dodds says that Orchard Island, Lakeview, and Russells Point are the hardest-hit areas. Roads are closed in that area. Officials scrambled this morning to assess the extent of the destruction with downed trees, gas leaks, fires, and fallen power lines.
The sheriff said this morning on the Today Show that first responders expect to find more bodies.
"I am concerned. I anticipate, unfortunately, anticipate we were going to find more. There's still more pockets of houses that we need to get into that we can't get into, and we're going to need some heavy equipment to move, move that, those materials to find these victims. Numerous injuries, I can't begin to tell you how many but too many to count unfortunately, but I do anticipate finding additional deceased persons unfortunately today," stated Sheriff Randall J. Dodds, Logan County.
The sheriff said there was a quick response from the first responders to the scene last night. But today the plan is to go back in with daylight and hopefully find some survivors.
"Yeah, we are actually putting together a plan today. We will be bringing in cadaver dogs and work a grid with fire, EMS, and law enforcement. We've actually searched these areas twice, but we feel like we need to go back and do another search with these systems, the cadaver dogs, that will kind of help us in which direction to go. One of the big issues we ran into last night was having access, for example, to the Orchard Island area. There were downed power lines, there were downed trees, we couldn't get access to them, and then we had natural gas leaks up there, and for the safety of our responders, we had to pull out until we could get those natural gas leaks stopped and the power turned off. So, it was just a lot of things to traverse, so, it was just, there a lot of things to traverse, so we are working in the right direction, and I'm hoping to find some positive things up there, hopefully find some survivors there, you know, that made it through the night, and I'm looking forward to that as well," said Sheriff Dodds.
The sheriff said they were overrun with volunteers last night wanting to help because it's such a close-knit community. He knows everyone will come together to clean up all the destruction.Â
"Everybody knows everybody. We care about each other here, and yeah, I'm a lifelong resident of Logan County. I'm a graduate of Indian Lake Schools, so I'm familiar of that lake area. I've lived around that most of my life, so I've seen devastation you know of other areas mostly on television, but when it hits home to you, it really wakes you up and makes you appreciate how precious life is. If I just ask, keep us in your prayers, absolutely," added Sheriff Dodds.
The Logan County EMA/EOC did say shortly before the noon hour on Friday that physical donations and volunteers are not needed at this current moment. If you are interested in volunteering, please register as a volunteer with the Red Cross, Salvation Army, or donate to Logan County United Way. The volunteer agencies will reach out to you at the appropriate time. The United Way of Logan County has organized a link for online monetary donations at www.uwlogan.org.Â
We have more tonight on Your News Now at Six concerning the damage and recovery efforts in the Indian Lake Area.
