NWS confirms Bloomington, Monroe County area hit by EF2 tornado Friday.
Meteorologists with the National Weather Service of Indianapolis say multiple tornadoes likely hit southern-central Indiana on Friday causing significant damage, including one confirmed EF2 tornado in Monroe County.
Meteorologists with NWS Indianapolis have not determined how many tornadoes hit Indiana, but they plan to continue conducting tornado damage survey in Sullivan, Greene, Brown and Bartholomew counties.
"There were a number of homes damaged, lots of trees down and there was very large hail in parts of the (southern-central) area —hail up to 4 inches in diameter," said Chad Swia, NWS Indianapolis meteorologist.
Shortly after 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, NWS Indianapolis's survey team confirmed that a low-end EF2 tornado struck central Monroe County yesterday. At its widest, the tornado was 250 yards.
Preliminary EF-2 damage was found in Monroe County today. Surveys are complete for the day. Additional surveys will be conducted Sunday. #inwx https://t.co/heSHMcBYWm
The survey team released its initial report, noting that the tornado touched down in west central Monroe County, damaging several trees and causing minor structural damage until it reached State Road 45 and South Elwren Road.
The tornado then hit a large horse barn, removing the south and east walls along with the entire roof.
The tornado continued east, where it eventually hit the Clear Creek post office, ripping the roof off and throwing it about 50 yards to the east northeast.
The survey team believed the tornado caused significant damage to the small building due to the fact that it was constructed with cinder blocks and the only anchoring was by mortar with no reinforcement.
As it continued east, it destroyed two garages and outbuildings.
The debris was thrown nearly 100 yards and a metal storage unit was lifted and tossed nearly 40 yards, landing on top of two cars.
The tornado also damaged the roof of a single-floor double rental unit and to several other cars in the area.
The survey team believes this tornado traveled along the track of a long-lived Supercell thunderstorm Friday night that started in Illinois and moved through south-central Indiana.
The survey team will continue its damage survey on Sunday across the area, west and east of Monroe County.
The Indianapolis Airport recorded gusts up to 75 mph Friday night, according to NWS Indianapolis meteorologists.
Images on social media showcase an idea of how much damage the region experienced from Friday night's storm. Notably, the Clear Creek Post Office was destroyed by the tornado.
Some of the first confirmed reports of tornadoes stemmed from western Indiana, after the Linton Police Department reported that a tornado was moving east at 45 mph over Linton at about 6:50 p.m.
On Saturday, Brown County Emergency Management Director Chad Jenkins said some people in the Horsemen's Campground suffered injuries that were not life-threatening. Indiana University Health took the injured to the Bloomington hospital.
According to preliminary weather information, radars at 7:42 p.m. determined a severe thunderstorm possibly producing a tornado moving east at up to 50 mph, 7 miles southeast of Bloomington.
At 7:51 p.m., radars showed a severe thunderstorm possibly producing a tornado moving east at speeds up to 50 mph, 9 miles northwest of Osgood or 13 miles southwest of Batesville.
At 7:55 p.m., radars showed a severe thunderstorm possibly producing a tornado moving east at speeds up to 50 mph, near Vernon, or 18 miles east of Seymour.
At 8:01 p.m., radars confirmed that a large and extremely dangerous tornado had emerged near Columbus, moving east at speeds up to 50 mph.
Meteorologists with NWS Indianapolis expect a full damage report to be prepared by Sunday evening or Monday morning.
About 41,000 customers across Indiana had lost power after Friday night's storm among the five power companies that supply Hoosiers with power.
This story may be updated.
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