LAKE TOWNSHIP, OH (Toledo News Now) - Five years have passed since a deadly tornado hit Wood County, killing seven people are causing widespread damage to homes and businesses.
The EF-4 tornado formed late on the night of June 5, 2010, with
. At 11:20 p.m., it caused damage in Moline and moved into Lake Township.
“The tornado picked me up and I landed in between two boulders and the whole building collapsed on me,” said Gerald Lathrop to WTOL the next day.
had been driving along Route 795 and got out to look for shelter at the Lake Township building when the tornado destroyed it.
“And they went out and found Bailey in the yard. She didn't make it,” Lathrop recounted, unable to hold back tears.
was also killed as she was driving near the township building.
The tornado then made a direct hit at Lake High School, where several people were sheltering from the storm.
“I didn't know this was what Lake High School was going to look like, so the fact that we were in that building and survived it was like, oh my God,” said one student whose family fled to the school.
The high school was destroyed, just as seniors should have been celebrating.
“We were supposed to graduate in less than six hours, where there is nothing left. There's just a pile of rubble,” said Amanda Nuckols, a senior at the time.
The tornado then claimed the life of Millbury resident
before sweeping over Main Street, levelling several homes.
"No neighbors on my - to my right. It looked like a war zone," said Duane Lunder.
The Walters family was asleep inside their home when the tornado struck. Mary Walters and her son Hayden were killed, and Mary's husband Ryan later died of his injuries in the hospital. Only their daughter Maddie survived.
Scott and Kristie Gibson had the Walters family over for dinner earlier that night.
"She was a people person," said Kristie, Mary's best friend. "She loved kids and that showed at home and it showed at work and at school and at church."
"And [Hayden] was just always running around and having fun, driving his mom and dad crazy," Scott added. "[They were] afraid he was going to fall off or hurt himself because he was so energetic and had so much fun and was full of life."
A seventh person, Irwin Welling, died days later. Their lives are now memorialized at the rebuilt Lake Township building and at a park and gazebo next to it.
Homes on Main Street were rebuilt and so was a new Lake High School, which opened to students in the fall of 2012.
But it's the people that were lost who will always be the focus of the anniversaries.
"We don't think we will cry as much," said Michael Granata, father of Bailey Bowman.
"But we will never forget," Lathrop added.
A tornado also hit that night in Fulton County, damaging homes and thousands of trees in Oak Openings Preserve Metropark and the Maumee State Forest. Another tornado from the same outbreak caused damage to properties and businesses in Dundee, MI.
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