The 500-Year Flood of Northeast Ohio – The Flood of 2006
It has been almost 13 years since the storm known as the “500-Year Storm” swept through Northeast Ohio on July 27-28 in 2006. The severe flooding spread across Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties, though some of the heaviest damage was dealt to Lake County. Due to the amount of rainfall, the U.S. Geological Survey had dubbed it a “500-year flood” meaning that the event only has a 1 in 500 chance of occurring each year. Though the 3 counties saw quite a bit of flood damage, some of the heaviest damage was dealt to Painesville. While overall the storm had been classified a “500-Year Storm, for Painesville specifically, it had been classified as a “1000-year flood” with rainfall of 11.35 inches within a 48-hour period.
Continuous heavy rainfall had caused the Grand River to rise rapidly, eventually reaching 11 feet above flood level. Homes were ripped apart by flood waters, which raged through the Gristmill and Millstone Condominiums in Painesville. Cars, boats and more were damaged as families were rushed from second-story windows, rescued by both boat and helicopter. Trash was pushed up and swept through living rooms, as muddy flood waters covered cabinets, furniture and more. Over 100 people spent the night at Harvey High School to stay safe. Around 3:30 am, a state of emergency was declared as 10 Ohio counties grouped together and sent out rescue workers. All was declared a total loss as soaked carpet and destroyed vehicles were pulled from the condominiums.
President Bush was visiting the area at the time, and had declared Lake County a federal disaster area.
Roads and bridges had seen damage as well, with some being completely washed away. Damaged roads included the westbound lanes of Ohio 84 at the Madison Township and Perry Township lines. Other bridges were lifted away by the force of flood waters.
Over $1,000,000 worth of food and supplies were thrown out as Madison Giant Eagle was flooded with not only water, but sewage back-up. Over 350 families were also pushed from their homes in Sahara Manufactured Homes Park in Madison Township, and had spent their night at the Madison Senior Center.
Once flood waters subsided and much of the area was cleared of debris, Painesville had applied for government grant money to tear down over 40 units in the Gristmill and Millstone condominium complexes. They aimed to remove all remaining buildings to replace the site with trees and various floodplain vegetation.
It was late into the night/early into the morning on July 27, 2006. My friend and I had noticed a river flowing down the road outside, unknowing to the true damage the flood was causing elsewhere. It seemed to have come out of pretty much nowhere. We had just been outside some hours earlier and all was clear. So what else would two 16-year-olds do? I mean, other than put on swim shorts and venture out into the flood waters that had turned the street into a shallow river…because that’s what we did. Being someone to not watch the news often, I hadn’t heard much about the flood’s effects on Millstone until about 3 years later when I was out photographing old structures in Painesville. I had noticed the dilapidated condominiums down a blocked off road and had decided to venture down and into them to capture what had remained.
Gristmill condominiums were demolished very shortly before I had first photographed the area, and the remaining Millstone condominiums were demolished in October through November of 2012 in a controlled burn. A park now occupies the space where the structures once stood.
Photos above from the News Herald
I feel you are very brave (? ) to have walked through this and so capably recorded the devastation. I like the black and white photographs the best, especially the one of you (?) sitting at a desk amongst all the detritus. Thank you for sharing these thought provoking pictures.
It was a terrible flood.
Wish you had captured the old Swift packing house in the Stockyard neighborhood on W. 63rd. About half of it still remains. You might get permission to go behind the fence and take pictures, but I doubt that the demolition people would let you enter the building. One might do so with impunity, but they would no doubt be worried about liability.
Keep up the good work, and consider this: The US establishment, starting in the 1950s embarked on deindustrialization and a new finance-led economy based on borrowing from foreign countries. The jig is about up, however, as the dollar loses its advantage as the world’s reserve currency.
You would be amazed at the insides of the US Steel and Republic Steel facilities still standing in Lorain, running for over 2 miles along 28th St. There are maybe still 200 people still working there. Used to be probably over 10,000. The buildings are still standing with enormous furnaces and machines probably intack. You might well be admitted under close supervision. I assume most of the enormous hulk is still save to explore.
Thank you so much for this info, I may have to check some of it out! I did photograph a building close to that area, but I’m not entirely sure what it had been used for. I will be digging a bit deeper into that while I work on my abandoned Ohio book series. I did photograph the old Warren steel, which you might be interested in checking out! – https://architecturalafterlife.com/2017/11/13/warren-steel/