Tornadoes were reported as storms tore through Indiana and Kentucky while a half-mile-wide tornado struck northwestern Ohio on Thursday, according to officials and news reports.
In eastern Indiana, local officials said they believed a tornado hit a trailer park in Winchester, according to 13 WTHR, an NBC News affiliate. However, meteorologists said they were still working to confirm that a tornado had touched down there.
“Radar data and reports from spotters and local officials are highly suggestive of a tornado,” Joseph Nield, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Indianapolis, said in a phone interview on Thursday.
A Weather Service team was set to travel to Winchester on Friday morning to assess the situation, he added.
Elsewhere, in Jefferson County, Ind., officials reported extensive damage, Sgt. Stephen Wheeles of the Indiana State Police said on social media. “A tornado has reportedly touched down all across Jefferson County, Indiana,” he wrote. “Multiple homes are damaged, with trees and power lines down.”
The sheriff in Jefferson County, Ben Flint, told The Associated Press that three or four single-family homes and four or five other structures had been destroyed. Several unoccupied recreational vehicles along a river were also demolished, he added.
“We were fortunate that no one was injured,” Sheriff Flint told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
Earlier Thursday night, the National Weather Service in Cleveland warned that a “very dangerous half mile wide tornado” was damaging homes and structures. It later wrote on social media that it was monitoring two tornadic rotations, one in Crawford County, just south of Chatfield, the other stronger one in northern Ashland County, near Nankin and Polk.
Officials in Ohio said they were still assessing severe storm damage to a lakeside mobile home community near Lakeview, Ohio.
Tornadoes were also reported in Gallatin and Trimble Counties in Kentucky, near Louisville, according to Gov. Andy Beshear.
