Of the properties hit in Kokomo, some 170 of them sustained serious damage, Indiana State Police Sgt.
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No serious injuries were reported after multiple tornadoes touched down Wednesday in central in, tearing the roofs off apartment buildings, sending air conditioners falling onto parked cars and cutting power to thousands of people.
Meteorologist Mike Ryan with the weather service’s Indianapolis office says five tornado touchdowns have been confirmed in central in and two have been confirmed in two northeastern in counties.
A tornado took a similar path through this stretch of Kokomo in 2013, officials said.
Katie Myers wasn’t home when the tornado touched down, but she was left to clean up the debris and eight years of memories. Despite all major damage to homes and businesses, only about 20 people were injured.
The storm swept across Indianapolis Friday morning, knocking down numerous trees onto homes and across streets.
In Howard County minor injuries were reported, in fact bore in result of storms, according to John Erickson, spokesman for the state Homeland Security Department. Kevin Gregory, chief meteorologist at WCPO’s Indianapolis sister station, RTV6, was on the air for seven hours straight tracking the tornado outbreak in central Indiana.
At 4:23 p.m, the National Weather Service confirmed a large and extremely risky tornado was located in Indianapolis, saying “This is a particularly unsafe situation, take cover now!”
Crews will be coming to Kokomo from all over the state Thursday to help with cleanup.
“The lord was with us”, Workman said.
Several struck central Indiana’s Howard County, where utility companies reported at least 15,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity Thursday morning.
The Colts were cloistered in the players’ lounge at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center on Wednesday with reports of a funnel cloud in the Eagle Creek area.
In Crawfordsville, Indiana, about 60 miles southwest of Kokomo, winds reached 111 miles per hour.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence hugged and chatted with residents in a neighborhood where the damage seemed to skip some homes altogether.
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An EF-3 touched down in Kokomo; an EF-2 caused extensive damage in Montgomery County; two EF-1 tornadoes were confirmed in Howard County and another in Carroll and Howard Counties; and an EF-0 touched down in Marion County. The NWS report says an EF-3 was on the ground for 10 minutes, covering almost five miles. “I was honored to receive that award, but I wasn’t the only one that helped that day”, Persons said. That tornado injured almost three dozen people.
