By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
First the rain and now the wind have wreaked havoc on Crawford County which has borne its fair share of the carnage this week and then some.
Wednesday afternoon’s storm left parts of the county without power and more rain thanks to strong winds. Nearly 2,600 AEP customers in the county were without power at least for a time Wednesday afternoon. Ohio 4 north of Bucyrus near the Ohio State Highway Patrol Post remained closed all the way to Spore-Brandywine Road while crews worked on a power pole.
Ohio routes 61 and 602 were also closed for a time because of downed trees, but they have been reopened.
For a time Wednesday afternoon and evening the county’s 9-1-1 system was down and those calls had to be routed through the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office and back into Crawford County.
The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office said it had not received any reports of injuries as a result of the latest storm. The county’s largest industry, agriculture may not be so fortunate.
Already in danger because of the extremely wet weather in May, June and early July, crops took another blow in Wednesday’s storm from the winds that came out of the northwest. Corn and bean crops were not only under water but the corn in many places was blown down at the worst and bent over in many other places. While the field corn could recover, sweet corn and other garden plants could be affected much worse. Other fall crops, such as pumpkins, are also in danger from the wet grounds.