Xenia residents are picking up the pieces and assessing the damage caused by a tornado that tore through the town Wednesday night.  One man was killed when a tree fell on his car and at least 115 were injured in the wake of the storm, according to AP wire reports. The storm began around 7:30 p.m. where it overturned cars, uprooted foliage, flattened buildings and barns, and damaged businesses along its 2 mile path. Gov. Bob Taft declared a state of emergency at 10:32 p.m. Wednesday. “It`s the worst thing we`ve had in quite a while,” said Gretchen Rives, spokeswoman for Greene Memorial Hospital in Xenia. The National Weather Service in Wilmington, Ohio confirmed that the severe storm was in fact a tornado after the area was evaluated Thursday morning. “This was a very strong tornado,” said Mike Ryan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington. “We determined the tornado was an F-4. We had people out there all morning looking at the damage and surveying. We looked for various things…like the convergent wind flow patterns. The wind speed was over 210 mph,” he said.Ryan said that meteorologists ascertain the severity of a tornado by examining the amount of damage it caused, and the type and size of structures that were destroyed. An F-4 tornado represents the second highest classification on the Fujita Scale, a scale developed in the 1970s to classify tornados. Although Rives said that she believes that “we are over the hump now,” in terms of incoming patients, it was a busy night for the 200-bed community hospital, the only hospital in Greene County. “We treated over 100 people. 90 percent of our medical staff was on duty and we had to use five times are regular staff,” Rives said. Six people were admitted to the hospital, but six others were held overnight in order to receive oxygen. “All six of them had lost their homes–all their homes were destroyed,” Rives said. In order to handle the flow of injuries, the hospital opened an alternate emergency room, in addition to the new emergency center that opened in May. “The top three injuries were punctured lungs, broken bones and head injuries,” Rives said.  A number of patients sustained lacerations, bruises, and punctures from flying debris. Those familiar with the area are quick to recall one of the most serious tornadoes in Ohio history which hit Xenia, located 20 miles east of Dayton, just 26 years ago. While the probability of a tornado this severe hitting the same area in a 26-year period may seem unlucky, Ryan notes that is not so strange.”It`s probably more common than people think it should be. You wouldn’t think you`d see that. But the 1974 tornado was much stronger than this one,” he said. F-4 and F-5 tornadoes are “fairly rare here in Ohio” Ryan said.  The 1974 tornado was an F-5, the most severe.On average, tornadoes hit Ohio 10 to 15 times a year. The National Weather Service reports that tornadoes also hit Delaware, Licking, Huron, Erie, Knox and Greene counties Wednesday evening.According to a released statement by the Federal and Ohio Emergency Management Agency, officials will be on hand Friday in Greene County to provide recovery assistance. State agencies will provide traffic control, security, and help remove debris caused by the storm.