NWS Confirms At Least One Tornado Hit County
August 12, 2020 at 2:52 a.m.
NWS Confirms At Least One Tornado Hit County
By David Slone, Managing Editor, and Amanda Bridgman, Staff Writer-
According to the National Weather Service North Webster Office, an EF1 tornado reaching peak winds of 90 mph touched down at 6:56 p.m. 0.75 miles north of North Webster Monday. The tornado traveled 1.5 miles and had a width of 100 yards.
Trees were snapped west of Ind. 13, then the tornado crossed Ind. 13, resulting in a notable path of trees snapped and broken limbs, according to the NWS. Debris was scattered throughout a nearby church parking lot and resulted in the loss of the church’s roof.
The tornado eventually crossed out over Lake Webster and dissipated.
An EF1 tornado is categorized by the NWS as “weak” with winds between 86 and 110 mph. Tornadoes can range between an EF0 through the strongest of an EF5 that has winds in excess of 200 mph.
Kevin McSherry, Burket firefighter, said he was on the front porch of his house when he witnessed a tornado along CR 700W at Beaver Dam Road. He said it was on top of two residences there, it went up and then back down in a field east of that location twice. In the funnel was plenty of debris, and he estimated it took the debris 300 to 400 feet in the air.
“It was quite a sight to see. It sounded like a train going through,” McSherry said Tuesday morning. “It went up and down in the air.”
He watched it for about one-third of a mile between 6:30 and 6:40 p.m. Monday, but then lost sight of it. He reported it to central dispatch.
As far as the base of the tornado, he said it was hitting houses on both sides of the road so he estimated it to be 100 feet wide.
In North Webster, the parking lot of the North Webster United Methodist Church was littered with leaves and limbs of various sizes from the church’s woods. The church is at the intersection of Panorama Drive and Epworth Forest Road, with the woods to the west of the church and Panorama Drive. A large pine tree was uprooted and laying in front of the church, while damage to the roof was obvious.
Chip Winnebald, trustees chairman for the church, said they believe the steeple also was damaged because the cross on top of it was facing south, but now it’s facing more northwest.
He was hoping to have volunteers come Tuesday to help clean up the property, as well as the insurance company to file a claim. He said the roof appeared to be “damaged beyond repair.”
Winnebald said they believed the debris in the parking lot was from their woods and that a tornado had swept through there, causing the damage.
“It’s a shame, but most things can be fixed. No one was hurt so that’s good,” he said.
In Epworth Forest, North Webster, many trees look like they were split. Trees and limbs were holding power lines down. On North Center Street East, a yellow caution tape prevented traffic and pedestrians from getting too close to the downed tree on the power line.
Matt Eberly just finished building his new home at 6565 1st Trail. He had just put in the sod about a week ago.
He said everyone was safe, and he’d clean it up and put it back together again. Having built the home “from scratch,” he said he’d have to talk to the builders again to repair the home, with most of the damage to the lakefront facade.
Allie Bussard, 6670 5th Trail, had a tree fall around the front corner of her house and “a really big limb on the back corner,” she said. She wasn’t home Monday night when it happened because she hadn’t moved in yet.
“I was hoping to (move in) this weekend,” she said. “I have a really good homeowners insurance company. They’re coming to take care of the trees today. They’ll get an estimate in and take care of the rest of the damage within the week.”
Bussard was born and raised in Warsaw, but lived in Tennessee for the past 21 years and recently moved back to the area.
“It could be worse. I guess the house across the street had a log come through their roof. They have a big hole over there,” she said.
In Winona Lake at the intersection of Winona Avenue and Argonne Road, a tree toppled a power line and caused a small fire that had to be extinguished by Winona Lake Fire Department, WLFD Public Information Officer Mike Cox said. It also temporarily shut down the traffic light at the intersection, which was restored by NIPSCO early Tuesday morning.
Ed Rock, Kosciusko County Emergency Management director, said the damage in the Mentone area from a “wind event”?caused significant damage with downed trees.
“Seems like everything south of Main Street really took a beating last night,” Mentone Town Marshal Jim Eads said Tuesday. “The water street guys came in last night, and we went through this two years ago where a lot of trees fell down with a storm and everybody came out, seems like they still had their chain saws and they did a good job of getting the streets cleared and opened up.”
Eads also said the storm resulted in roughly $40,000 worth of damage to 105 Jackson St. That home caught fire after a power line got caught in a tree and fell onto the home’s metal guttering. Eads said that resulted in the power transferring through the home’s cast iron galvanized pipe system.
“So it just chased that ground all through the house,” he said. Mentone and Burket fire departments were able to quickly put the fire out on the home’s second story, but smoke damage remains throughout. No one was home at the time, but neighbors had called 911 after thinking they smelled smoke in their own home.
“Upon arrival, we found that it was the neighbor’s house,” Eads said, adding that 105 Jackson St. is one of Mentone’s older and well-preserved homes.
“The inside is all oak and hardwood floors and a very nice-shape house, so it’s going to take quite a bit to get it back to the way it was,” Eads said.
Jennifer Barger, with Kosciusko County REMC, said nearly 7,000 REMC members began losing power around 6:45 p.m. Monday. She said the primary reason for the outages was from fallen trees and broken utility poles.
KREMC had restored power to 6,435 members by 8 a.m. Tuesday and hoped to have the remaining 565 without power up and running by noon Tuesday.
According to Jeff Logsdon, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in North Webster, Kosciusko County experienced a derecho. A derecho is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm that is associated with a fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms. Derechos can cause hurricane-force winds, tornadoes, heavy rains and flash floods, Logsdon said.
Logsdon said it appears the damage in the Mentone/Burket area stems from straight-line wind damage, not a tornado.
According to the National Weather Service North Webster Office, an EF1 tornado reaching peak winds of 90 mph touched down at 6:56 p.m. 0.75 miles north of North Webster Monday. The tornado traveled 1.5 miles and had a width of 100 yards.
Trees were snapped west of Ind. 13, then the tornado crossed Ind. 13, resulting in a notable path of trees snapped and broken limbs, according to the NWS. Debris was scattered throughout a nearby church parking lot and resulted in the loss of the church’s roof.
The tornado eventually crossed out over Lake Webster and dissipated.
An EF1 tornado is categorized by the NWS as “weak” with winds between 86 and 110 mph. Tornadoes can range between an EF0 through the strongest of an EF5 that has winds in excess of 200 mph.
Kevin McSherry, Burket firefighter, said he was on the front porch of his house when he witnessed a tornado along CR 700W at Beaver Dam Road. He said it was on top of two residences there, it went up and then back down in a field east of that location twice. In the funnel was plenty of debris, and he estimated it took the debris 300 to 400 feet in the air.
“It was quite a sight to see. It sounded like a train going through,” McSherry said Tuesday morning. “It went up and down in the air.”
He watched it for about one-third of a mile between 6:30 and 6:40 p.m. Monday, but then lost sight of it. He reported it to central dispatch.
As far as the base of the tornado, he said it was hitting houses on both sides of the road so he estimated it to be 100 feet wide.
In North Webster, the parking lot of the North Webster United Methodist Church was littered with leaves and limbs of various sizes from the church’s woods. The church is at the intersection of Panorama Drive and Epworth Forest Road, with the woods to the west of the church and Panorama Drive. A large pine tree was uprooted and laying in front of the church, while damage to the roof was obvious.
Chip Winnebald, trustees chairman for the church, said they believe the steeple also was damaged because the cross on top of it was facing south, but now it’s facing more northwest.
He was hoping to have volunteers come Tuesday to help clean up the property, as well as the insurance company to file a claim. He said the roof appeared to be “damaged beyond repair.”
Winnebald said they believed the debris in the parking lot was from their woods and that a tornado had swept through there, causing the damage.
“It’s a shame, but most things can be fixed. No one was hurt so that’s good,” he said.
In Epworth Forest, North Webster, many trees look like they were split. Trees and limbs were holding power lines down. On North Center Street East, a yellow caution tape prevented traffic and pedestrians from getting too close to the downed tree on the power line.
Matt Eberly just finished building his new home at 6565 1st Trail. He had just put in the sod about a week ago.
He said everyone was safe, and he’d clean it up and put it back together again. Having built the home “from scratch,” he said he’d have to talk to the builders again to repair the home, with most of the damage to the lakefront facade.
Allie Bussard, 6670 5th Trail, had a tree fall around the front corner of her house and “a really big limb on the back corner,” she said. She wasn’t home Monday night when it happened because she hadn’t moved in yet.
“I was hoping to (move in) this weekend,” she said. “I have a really good homeowners insurance company. They’re coming to take care of the trees today. They’ll get an estimate in and take care of the rest of the damage within the week.”
Bussard was born and raised in Warsaw, but lived in Tennessee for the past 21 years and recently moved back to the area.
“It could be worse. I guess the house across the street had a log come through their roof. They have a big hole over there,” she said.
In Winona Lake at the intersection of Winona Avenue and Argonne Road, a tree toppled a power line and caused a small fire that had to be extinguished by Winona Lake Fire Department, WLFD Public Information Officer Mike Cox said. It also temporarily shut down the traffic light at the intersection, which was restored by NIPSCO early Tuesday morning.
Ed Rock, Kosciusko County Emergency Management director, said the damage in the Mentone area from a “wind event”?caused significant damage with downed trees.
“Seems like everything south of Main Street really took a beating last night,” Mentone Town Marshal Jim Eads said Tuesday. “The water street guys came in last night, and we went through this two years ago where a lot of trees fell down with a storm and everybody came out, seems like they still had their chain saws and they did a good job of getting the streets cleared and opened up.”
Eads also said the storm resulted in roughly $40,000 worth of damage to 105 Jackson St. That home caught fire after a power line got caught in a tree and fell onto the home’s metal guttering. Eads said that resulted in the power transferring through the home’s cast iron galvanized pipe system.
“So it just chased that ground all through the house,” he said. Mentone and Burket fire departments were able to quickly put the fire out on the home’s second story, but smoke damage remains throughout. No one was home at the time, but neighbors had called 911 after thinking they smelled smoke in their own home.
“Upon arrival, we found that it was the neighbor’s house,” Eads said, adding that 105 Jackson St. is one of Mentone’s older and well-preserved homes.
“The inside is all oak and hardwood floors and a very nice-shape house, so it’s going to take quite a bit to get it back to the way it was,” Eads said.
Jennifer Barger, with Kosciusko County REMC, said nearly 7,000 REMC members began losing power around 6:45 p.m. Monday. She said the primary reason for the outages was from fallen trees and broken utility poles.
KREMC had restored power to 6,435 members by 8 a.m. Tuesday and hoped to have the remaining 565 without power up and running by noon Tuesday.
According to Jeff Logsdon, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in North Webster, Kosciusko County experienced a derecho. A derecho is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm that is associated with a fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms. Derechos can cause hurricane-force winds, tornadoes, heavy rains and flash floods, Logsdon said.
Logsdon said it appears the damage in the Mentone/Burket area stems from straight-line wind damage, not a tornado.
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