The EF-4 tornado that swept through Wood and Ottawa counties on June 6, 2010 destroyed 100 homes, killed seven people, destroyed Lake High School, and forced families to rebuild homes.

Since that night one year ago, businesses along its route have also had to rebuild.

At least four businesses along State Route 795 suffered damage, and a Mexican restaurant sits near the rebuilt Lake Township Administration Building still looking much like it did after the tornado hit.

Since, some businesses have either reopened or gotten back to full capacity, Genoa Banking Company President Marty Sutter said.

“That’s a piece that nobody’s talked about,” Sutter said. “Everybody’s concerned about the individuals and homeowners and the school, but we shouldn’t forget there were a lot of businesses impacted over there. They are reopened and doing well.”

Fortunately for one business located directly across from Lake High School, it is in the construction industry and was able to use its own resources to repair damage.

The Delventhal Company has been in the construction industry for over 120 years. Steve Delventhal says the tornado caused about one quarter of a million dollars damage to his company, first taking down its computer system and server. The general contracting company remained dormant for about three weeks.

“Certainly we didn’t take the ravage of the tornado as much as some, so we’re very fortunate there,” Delventhal said. “Without any electricity and your computers are down, a lot of people couldn’t even get in here because we were inoperable.

“Fortunately, being a construction company, we were able to do most of the work ourselves. It took us from June until the middle of November to get everything ship-shape, painted again and back to order,” he continued.

Because his company had to shut down temporarily, there was no income being generated.

“If you can’t continue to do jobs, there was a loss of revenue certainly,” Delventhal said. “The biggest thing is we weren’t able to bid projects throughout that time. We were fortunate in a sense, our next door neighbor, we did the retrofit on their building and we also did all the renovation and we re-roofed and resided the whole building at Service Spring.”

Service Spring, is a manufacturer of springs and supplier of replacement hardware for the garage door industry. It was established in 1962 and is back to operating at full capacity now.

As far as the former Mexican restaurant near the Lake Township administration building, the head of The Delventhal Company has a piece of advice.

“I think the best thing for that is to continue with the demolition,” Delventhal said.

It was not just Delventhal’s business that was affected. His daughter, Stacy Taylor, and her husband, Todd Taylor and their two children had lived in Millbury 11 years before losing their home during the storm.

While living on Main Street, the Taylors were next door to the Walters family: Ryan, Mary, and Hayden, who were all killed and had their home leveled. Delventhal’s daughter and family chose to move elsewhere.

“The tornado affected us in many ways. They chose not to rebuild there,” Delventhal said. “It was pretty dramatic for the kids. One of my granddaughters wasn’t home, but everyone else was. It was a traumatic situation, certainly. I think they are better off and I know they are happy with they are at. They sold the lot, and last I heard somebody is in hopes of starting a home. So there will be another house there.”

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