One year after a tornado hit Point Place, residents are still working to rebuild

TOLEDO, Ohio —

One year after an EF-2 tornado hit Point Place, the community is still working to rebuild.

"It happened suddenly, without warning," Mike DeLong, a Point Place resident of 17 years, said.

DeLong said he didn't know it was a tornado that had impacted the area at first. He said he was outside when a storm started to roll in on June 15, 2023.

RELATED: 'This can all be fixed,' Point Place neighbors work to clean up, express gratitude no one was injured in tornado

He said hail came down, and it was the largest hail he had ever seen.  DeLong said his car and roof had hail damage.

"We started driving around," he said. "There were trees down everywhere. All the streets had trees covering them."

He said neighbors came out to start clearing the roads with chainsaws and clippers.

"Neighbors were helping neighbors," DeLong said. "We had generators out. It was really awesome."

A year later, tree damage can still be seen. The tree canopy that once existed is now gone, but the city is working to bring it back.

"We're in the process of replanting 400 trees in Point Place between now and next year," Toledo City Council member Theresa Morris said. "We've already started the replanting and the reforestation. The problem is, we're never going to see that tree canopy that we had in this lifetime."

Morris said there are still 1,300 tree stumps the city has to grind down.  

RELATED: Point Place wants city to help replace hundreds of trees destroyed by tornado

Businesses in the area, like Gary's Automotive, also received a lot of damage and are still working to rebuild.

Owner David Thomas said the tornado was life-changing. Gary's Automotive has been in business for 16 years, but it has not been able to be open this past year. Thomas said the community showed a lot of interest in helping.

"I had to keep telling them no," Thomas said. "We have a lot of customers, age groups, high and low and a lot of them are senior citizens and they're coming over here trying to clean. give me a broom, and I'm like, no I can't do that." 

After a month of clean-up, Thomas said he was ready to start working, but issues with insurance have delayed the rebuilding process. He said they have a contractor and architect set up, and a meeting with city council in July to get the building permits approved.  

DeLong said when looking back at the past year though, it's not the debris or damage that he remembers the most; it's the community.