COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The wind storm this week sparked memories of Hurricane Ike -- the September storm that caused $1 billion in damages.
In some parts of town, you can still see blue tarps on roofs that are waiting to be repaired.
The winds were still hurricane force when they tore through Ohio in September, Storm Team 4's Marshall McPeek reported.
"The living room sofa where they would be sitting split in half by the storm, where they would normally be," said Dwight Reinstetle, an area resident.
Trees landed on houses. Trees and poles landed on cars, and some homes were without power for more than a week.
The cleanup started immediately, and five months later, it's still not finished.
Carl Nease's roof was damaged during the storm and wasn't fixed until this week.
"At one point, we were getting 150 calls a day from this storm. It just created an enormous backlog," said Jess Biller, president of Paramount Roofing.
The insurance industry said Ohioans like Nease made $1.2 billion in claims, ranking third behind Texas and Louisiana for the most-damaged areas.
It's almost as bad as the deadly tornado in Xenia in 1974 -- if you adjust for inflation.
The Ohio Emergency Management Agency said the state requested $8.8 million in aid from the federal government. SO far, $5.5 million has been distributed to local governments.
But none of that money went to individuals or businesses, but rather to cover overtime costs for local governments to clean up.
The Ohio Insurance Institute said more than 90 percent of Ohio's claims have already been closed.
"With the spring, there's going to be people out and they're going to uncover damage that they didn't know they had. So there may be more claims coming," Biller said.
"It's really gratifying to get this all done, finally, before summer and the spring rains," Nease said.
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