By Dan Klepal
Enquirer staff writer

Tristate residents cleaned up Saturday after a frightful series of storms raced through the region Friday night, spawning a tornado in Ripley County that caused $465,000 in damage.

In addition, roads were temporarily closed by flash flooding across Northern Kentucky and Clermont County, power was disrupted to more than 11,000 Cinergy customers, and three lightning strikes sparked two house fires and a tree fire in Hamilton County.

The tornado struck Holton, Ind., a town of about 500 people about 60 miles west of Cincinnati, with winds up to 150 mph reported about 7 p.m.

It destroyed a house, a mobile home and two small airplanes, while also downing numerous trees and damaging about 36 other structures, according to the Ripley County Emergency Management Agency.

Power, which was out Friday night to about half the town, was restored Saturday afternoon.

Ohio and Kentucky got a soaking, with 3 to 4 inches of rain falling in Boone and Kenton counties, while 2 to 3 inches fell in Hamilton, Clermont and Warren counties.

Nearly 400 Cinergy customers, primarily around Milford, remained without power at 7 p.m. Saturday, but all were expected to have power restored before midnight, according to spokesman Steve Brash.

"We had lots of reports of high water on roadways, but it was mostly nuisance flooding," said Jim Lott, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Wilmington.

"There was a pretty good swath of heavy rain across the area."

No rain is in today's forecast; just light clouds and a high temperature in the mid-80s.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com