15-03-2025
One year after deadly tornado struck, Ohio communities gather to remember
LOGAN COUNTY, Ohio (WCMH) — It has now been one year since a deadly tornado devasted neighborhoods around Indian Lake.
The EF3 tornado killed three people. It destroyed 239 homes and damaged more than 1500 properties and businesses, according to the United Way of Logan County. On Friday, the one year anniversary, community members, students and first responders gathered at Indian Lake High School for a 'Stronger than the Storm' breakfast.
'It is hard to believe. I look back on that night, that day, and it's like holy smokes. It was all overwhelming and progress has been made but yeah time gets by,' Logan County Sheriff Randall Dodds said.
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On the rock out front of the high school sits the message, 'Anchored in Hope.' It's another saying people in the area have come to live by since the storm.
'It just speaks the truth. It's what we are. We will survive,' Dodds said. 'The tornado may have tore through the Indian lake community here but it didn't tear the spirit to survive and to live on.'
The Village of Lakeview was one of the areas hardest hit. Rick Stanley has lived there for more than 50 years. When the tornado hit, he huddled his family in a closet and did his best to protect them.
'That was the scariest night of our life right there. It was just beyond scary seeing it, hearing it, feeling it and then walking out and seeing the destruction,' Stanley said.
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Some homes in his neighborhood have been rebuilt. Work is still happening on other properties, and some lots are now empty.
'Our main thing is just seeing everything, how everything is just so bare, just so weird to look at all this stuff. But everybody is getting something done. It's coming along slowly,' Stanley said. 'Everything is just coming along piece by piece. But it'll be rebuilt. We'll have it. We will get there.'
In addition to the breakfast, a remembrance event and tornado relief anniversary party were also held.
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