An elderly Roswell area woman who was checking on her goats apparently was washed away by flooding Friday night and was found dead Saturday.
Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell said Doris Jenkins, 82, of Echo Lake Road, New Philadelphia, northwest of Roswell, had been reported missing from her home and neighbors searched the area and found her body face down in a field near the home. Jenkins was a former employee of Tuscarawas County Juvenile Court in New Philadelphia.
"Apparently, during the flooding, she went out to assist her goats and somehow got swept away by the flooding," Campbell said.
A neighbor called the Sheriff's Office at 10:52 a.m. Saturday to report that she had gone over to check on Jenkins and found the door to her home open and the first floor of the house wet from the flooding.
"The neighbors went out and found her in a field," Campbell said. "It apparently had rained that heavily. We had a report of another house on Echo Lake Road where part of their basement caved in because of the water."
County Engineer Joe Bachman said Saturday a resident of Echo Lake Road told one of his foremen that within one hour Friday night, the downpour left 5 inches of water in his rain gauge. The severe storm hit the area from about 7 to 8 p.m.
"We had some really, really severe damage between Mineral City and Roswell," Bachman said. "It was in a very concentrated area around Echo Lake Road, New Cumberland Road, and Henderson School Road."
He said several workers from the Tuscarawas County Road and Bridge Department responded to the area Friday night, and he talked with them then and met with them Saturday regarding the situation.
"It was probably a radius of about 2 miles each way from its central point," he said.
Campbell said he was told that about 60 feet of the berm along the north side of state Route 39 near the Tuscarawas and Carroll County line washed away. Ohio Department of Transportation crews had materials trucked in and made repairs Friday night.
Campbell said he had heard that about 200 kids were stranded in buses while on their way to Eastern Ohio Basketball Camp on Dawn Road SW near Sherrodsville. The camp’s swimming pool was under about 2 feet of water.
The sheriff and county EMA Director Alex McCarthy also inspected an earthen dam that they were worried might be overrun by water. Campbell said that it wasn’t a big threat even if water did go over the top of it.
Bachman said that the worst damage was to New Cumberland Road, where Conotton Creek flooded and "washed out pretty much all of one lane. The pavement is still there, but it washed out underneath it, and that one lane is closed."
He said the damage is near the Warren Township Building and close to the intersection with Dawn Road, about 2 miles south of New Cumberland.
"The berms of several roads were washed out, and our crews put up orange, warning cones to avoid those sections," Bachman said. "Warren Township had at least one road — Crooks Road — washed out and closed."
He said that about six to eight areas in the county had fallen trees reported, but "that's pretty routine for any severe storm. However, all of the water was concentrated in that one area. Going north from Roswell, you can see all kinds of water damage everywhere — the grass is flattened and still wet."
His department has changed its plans for Monday and is sending all its crews into that area.
"If we can get some rock delivered to us on Monday, it probably will be a one-day job, but it's going to take about 300 tons of rock to rebuild New Cumberland Road. We also have plugged culverts, and berms washed out. We'll probably be out there most of next week."