While this morning’s thunderstorm did not cause as much damage as the Father’s Day tornado, it left a possibly more widespread mark with downed trees and power lines, blocked roads, and scattered debris on roadways and in yards throughout Brookfield and Masury.
The National Weather Service reported that eight-tenths of an inch of rain fell between 7 and 9 a.m.
Greg Meade, who lives in the 7700 block of Stewart Sharon Road, between Bedford Road and Broadway Avenue, got a front-row seat.
“I sat on my porch and watched the big tree branches float down the road,” he said.
He also watched as a motorist was nearly hit twice by falling trees, one in front of his house and one in front of his neighbor’s up the hill. After running that gauntlet, the driver pulled over to calm her nerves.
“She was shaking,” Meade said.promo
A tree service had removed one of those trees in the morning, but a second tree, which brought wires down, was still across the road, prohibiting travel.
Meade’s neighbor, Tom Cornelius, had a tree fall across his driveway, and was marking other trees he wants taken down. He said four trees have been felled by various storms this year.
Further west on Stewart Sharon, just west of Collar Price Road, another tree came down, blocking the road.
In the Valley View neighborhood, a disgusted Caroline Trimm picked up sticks and branches that had washed into her yard. She lives on Crestwood Drive at Wildwood Drive. She has a stream on one side of her property, parallel to Wildwood, that jumps Crestwood during heavy rains. The water pools onto her property – debris could be seen nearly to Wildwood across her front yard – then rushes across Crestwood into back yards between Wildwood and Northview Drive.
“I shouldn’t have to contend with this all the time,” she said. “I just paid $350 to dig this out.”
In fact, she has had the stream dug out twice in the three years she has lived here. It just fills up again, she said.
While the township trustees have had extensive discussions with Trumbull County officials about ways to alleviate the flooding, they have not decided on a project or funding for one.
Trimm is angry with township and county officials for letting this go on so long, but also with her neighbor across the stream, who built a whiffle ball court – complete with clay around home plate and the bases – that washed out and sent dirt and clay into her yard; and her neighbors upstream, who need to maintain the channel on their properties and keep debris out of it, she said.
This time, water backed up into her garage, inundating carpeting and her husband’s work bench.
“If I had known about this, I wouldn’t have bought the place,” said Mrs. Trimm, who lost her husband last winter.
On Yankee Run Road, south of Custer Orangeville Road, a tree fell in the yard of Michael and Deb Bailey, ripping the electrical service off the Bailey house and downing lines in the yards of neighbors on each side. Brookfield firefighters strung caution tape in all three yards.
“It didn’t look like it did any structural damage,” Bailey said of the house he no longer lives in and has up for sale. “It could have been a lot worse.”
The water runoff turned upper Budd Street into a river, washing portions of driveways and landscaping material into the road.
“It came down so hard it washed out my driveway,” said resident Karen Hettrick.
It also washed neighbors’ driveways into her yard, and some water got into her basement.
Firefighters said they knew of no injuries caused by the storm.

Yankee Run Road.

Yankee Run Road.

Crestwood Drive.

Crestwood Drive.

Mulberry and First Streets.

Mulberry and First Streets.

Stewart Sharon Road between Broadway Avenue and Bedford Road.

Stewart Sharon Road between Broadway Avenue and Bedford Road.

Broadway Avenue, where a fallen tree blocked in this car.

Broadway Avenue, where a fallen tree blocked in this car.

Budd Street, where driveway stones and plant pots washed onto the road and into yards.

Budd Street, where driveway stones and plant pots washed onto the road and into yards.