Thursday, March 14, 2024 began as a normal day for many Logan County residents. But bad weather was brewing.
Logan County Emergency Management Agency officials typically prepare for severe weather common to the region like floods and ice storms, director Helen Norris said. But storms stirring in Illinois and Indiana presented unusual conditions for Ohio, leaving Norris on alert.
“I had it on radar, just laid beside my leg and I just kept refreshing it and monitoring that,” Norris said. “The storm arrived at the border of Ohio and had not shrunk or broken up at all.”
By 7:30 that night, a tornado had touched down in nearby Auglaize County, picking up speed as it barreled through the Indian Lake area. Wind speeds reached 155 miles per hour at the tornado’s peak, according to the National Weather Service, with a maximum width of 1,000 yards.
The tornado downed trees, destroyed buildings and led to the death of three residents, with 27 others left injured.
The loss rattled what Village of Lakeview Mayor Elaine Fagan-Moore calls a close-knit community.
“The village itself is about 1,200 people,” Fagan-Moore said. “A lot of … the families have been here (for) multiple generations. And so when you hear something devastating to one of those families, everybody hurts.”
Climate change may play a role
They’re not the only community in Ohio that’s been hit by a twister recently.
Last year, 74 tornadoes touched down in Ohio – the largest number on record, according to the National Weather Service.
Scientists speculate climate change might be increasing their frequency in the Midwest and South, by creating more of the conditions that lead to them.
“For example, because of climate change, the Gulf of Mexico is getting increasingly warmer,” said Jana Houser, an associate professor in the atmospheric sciences program at Ohio State University. ”The Gulf of Mexico is providing more moist and unstable air that can then be transferred northward to the interior part of the United States.”
She says that seems to be a signal for more extreme weather.
“It is wise for Ohio communities, for Ohio residents, to take precautions, to know how to respond and react in the face of adverse weather conditions,” Houser said.
Housing losses show need for building solutions
After last year’s deadly tornado, improved resilience remains top of mind for residents in the Indian Lake area. One year later, affordable individual and multi-family housing is the highest priority for county officials, and Norris’s emergency response team.
“On the day that we had the tornado, we probably only had 50 places available to rent in Logan County over the whole county, but we lost about 500 habitable residences on that day,” she said. “So housing has been a major, major challenge for us.”
Newer structures fared better than older ones, Norris said, but in total 1,356 residential buildings were affected. About a quarter of those were completely destroyed.
“Some of those properties were built as fishing shacks and they were built on skids,” she said. “So some of them didn't have a very sturdy structure for the residents to start with.”
Norris estimates about 100 mobile homes were damaged in some capacity during the storm.
As the community rebuilds, residents and officials are working to ensure they’re better protected from tornadoes that may hit the area in the future.
Zoning codes have since been updated to improve the sturdiness of new builds, Norris said. And around the state, builders are looking at ways to make homes more resilient.
Alternative building materials emerge
Central Ohio company Jems Homes sometimes builds homes with wood. But co-owner Steve Boone says he prefers to use insulated concrete form blocks, or ICF — a building material composed of concrete and foam, reinforced with steel.
“Whenever somebody walks in our door, we try to steer them towards ICF and typically it doesn't take much,” Boone said. “They see it and they understand the value of it.”
He said ICF is more durable than wood and because of that, is used more often in the South.
“You go down to Florida, different southern states, you're gonna see a lot more of it because obviously the hurricanes are a big deal,” he said.
But ICF is only just emerging as a building material in Ohio.
“What we find in Ohio is builders do what they're used to or do what they've done for years and do not like to branch out and look at new things,” Boone said.
ICF’s main downside is the cost, he said, so other companies are seeking out cheaper solutions to resilient housing.
Northwest Ohio company Sustainable Concrete Innovations is experimenting with 3D printed concrete to frame homes. It also uses steel and foam in its structure. Founder John Smoll said using a 3D printer is cheaper because it cuts down on the time and labor to build a home.
“We're actually trying to bring the technology and the efficiency that we found in 3D printing and help other builders and developers capitalize on that without spending a million dollars to go out and buy their own printer,” Smoll said.
But the technology is newer and its resilience is less documented.
“Right now, we know it's more durable, (but) we can't quantify how much durability is there,” he said.
So Smoll plans to test the technology himself: He and his wife plan to live in one of the 3D printed homes they’ve built. With increasing severe weather across the state, it might not take long to see how the materials hold up.