It was a Sunday, like many other days off, except it was my 40th birthday. I was setting at home chomping at the bit to hit the road, watching storms develop on my computer in my office. The Storm Prediction Center had just upgraded a Moderate Risk for Ohio to a High Risk. I saw a huge cell that was moving NE from Hancock County, towards Tiffin, Ohio. I jumped into my truck and headed south on SR 53, a direct route towards Tiffin, and was met by some amazing cloud-to-cloud lightning and wind gusts to about 60 mph.
I approached Tiffin, Ohio and I skirted the north part of town along Second St. and stopped quickly to photograph a group of bar patrons looking up at the ominous sky. As I as shooting that, I got knocked on the head, by what I thought was a walnut, but I discovered was golf-ball sized hail. The air was still but hail was falling like I had never seen in Ohio before.
I looked to the south and saw several funnel clouds swirling around each other. In the distance, two funnels pulled down from the cloud base and formed one. I turned the corner from 2nd street, south onto Nelson Street just as a funnel dropped from the sky over what looked like downtown Tiffin. I threw my truck into park right in the middle of the road, braced myself on the open door, I got about 10 frames off of the tornado before the whole town went black. The tornado turned from white to black, the second it touched the ground. I tried to get in behind the tornado and was blown from one lane of the road to the other in a second. I gave up my pursuit at that time, because I did not know if there were other tornadoes in the area, and it was too dark. I headed in the direction of the first hit of the tornado. As I drove south, I topped a hill, and a tree blew down over the road. I slammed on the brakes and skidded into the outer branches, no harm done, just a good scare. I back-tracked and found the initial touchdown, it hit a subdivision and completely demolished several homes, one of the houses' second story and roof were over 100 feet from the foundation. I was there before the rescue personnel and photographed people digging through the foundation for survivors. Fortunately, the only fatality was a dog. I shot some damage and then headed towards Fostoria, Ohio, which was also hit and then to Port Clinton, Ohio.
The next day I shot damage in Republic, Fostoria, Tiffin, and Port Clinton, Ohio tallied 5 fatalities that night. At least 35 people were killed and more than 200 were injured after this outbreak of tornadoes lashed the eastern United States. Tornadoes flattening entire communities from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes in one of the worst storms to hit the region for a decade.
The tornado reported in Van Wert County in 2002 was a violent F4 tornado with 2 fatalities. There were also reported tornadoes in Paulding County and Putnam County in Ohio. Both of these tornadoes were a severe F3 tornado and there were 2 fatalities near Continental, Ohio. Overall, five people were killed because of these violent storms in Van Wert, Putnam, and Seneca County.
The November 10, 2002 tornadoes were reported in several counties of
Ohio including Putnam County and Van Wert County also Seneca, Hancock, and Huron and Erie Counties. All schools in Van
Wert County were canceled on November 11 (including Van Wert City
Schools, Crestview, and Lincolnview schools). Van Wert city schools
were closed on the 12th and 13th. The schools were also
delayed on November 14th and 15th.
Then Governor Bob Taft declared a state of emergency for Van Wert County and Ottawa County because of the violent tornadoes that hit northwest Ohio. After the tornado event in NW Ohio I became close friends with many of the victims. Many copies of my tornado photo from the November 10th Tiffin tornado, hangs on the rebuilt walls of homes as a reminder of what Mother Nature can serve up in the blink of an eye, and also how quickly lives can change for us all.My tornado photo from that day ended up being one of Time/Life Magazine's Photos of the Year in 2002. At that point in time this photo, shot 20 miles from my home, was one of my best tornado shots, despite all the time I spent in the plains chasing with my group MESO. Since then we have traveled many miles and survived Silverton, TX, Attica, KS, and Greensburg, KS, and will be heading out to the plains again next Spring for our 12th year together.
See more of my storm chasing photos HERE.
Photos from the evening of November 10th and aftermath on the 11th.