NWS Teams Survey Tornado Damage in Southwest Indiana

GIBSON CO., Ind –– National Weather Service crews are surveying storm damage Monday after a severe weather outbreak produced multiple reported tornadoes across southwest Indiana, trapping some people in debris and causing damage in several communities.

Forecasters with the National Weather Service office in Paducah, Kentucky, said numerous rotating storms moved through the region overnight. Many showed tornado signatures on radar and were later confirmed through spotter reports, eyewitness accounts and damage reports from the ground.

Communities reporting tornadoes or tornado damage included Princeton, Newburgh, Chandler, Dale and Grandview in Indiana, as well as areas near Owensboro, Kentucky.

Meteorologist Katie Hickford said Newburgh appears to be among the hardest-hit areas and will be a primary focus of damage survey teams.

“We had many cells moving through the area, and most of them were producing at one point or another,” Hickford said. “Even if it was initially just a signature on radar, many of those were later confirmed.”

The storms developed in southern Illinois before moving into southwest Indiana and continuing east through the night.

“A lot of that activity started across southern Illinois and then moved into southwest Indiana and continued to propagate east through the night,” Hickford said.

Officials said some people were trapped by debris during the storms, but no information on injuries, hospitalizations or fatalities was immediately available. Emergency crews continued damage assessments Monday morning.

Hickford described the outbreak as one of the most significant weather events to affect the region this year.

“This has probably been the biggest event we’ve seen so far this year,” she said.

Forecasters will use several methods to confirm tornadoes, including eyewitness accounts, photographs, videos and radar data.

“The most obvious one is pictures and videos and actual eyewitness reports from the ground,” Hickford said. “The other thing is radar confirmation, particularly the presence of a tornado debris signature.”

The National Weather Service will send survey teams into affected areas to determine how many tornadoes touched down, their paths and their strength.

Hickford said trained storm spotters played a key role in helping forecasters track the storms.

“There are people that we train throughout the year, particularly in the spring,” she said. “We have a set of spotter classes that we do across our entire 58-county area. We train people on how to be spotters for us.”

She urged residents to stay alert when severe weather threatens and to take watches and warnings seriously.

“Make sure that you are really heeding those watches and paying attention,” Hickford said. “A watch is the time to prepare. It’s the time to get ready, pay attention to the weather and have an action plan in place.”

She added, “Know what you’re going to do should you receive a warning.”

Preliminary survey results are expected later Monday, with final tornado ratings and damage assessments to follow in the coming days.