After further investigation, the National Weather Service has determined an EF-0 tornado touched down in Milford Tuesday morning. It was the second of two tornados confirmed Tuesday by the NWS. The first was an EF-1 in LaGrange County, with estimated peak winds of 95 mph. Meteorologist Patrick Murphy reported that as of 10 a.m. today, there were just the two. “As of now, we have a team surveying more damage, but no determination yet. There are two,” he said. According to the website for the NWS Weather Forecast Office, Northern Indiana (www.weather.gov/iwx), the Milford tornado had estimated peak winds of 80 mph. Its path length was about 1.9 miles, with a maximum width of 50 yards. It started at about 1:06 a.m. and ended at 1:08 a.m. The survey summary states the tornado touched down just south of CR 1250N and east of CR 400W where a large metal farm building was destroyed. The tornado crossed 1250N and went through a cornfield, then destroyed a barn near CR 200W north of CR 1250N with “missile debris” scattered to the east across CR 200W. It then moved into another cornfield where the circulation lifted and dissipated. The Enhanced Fujita scale classifies tornadoes into six categories, with EF-0 being “weak” at 65 to 85 mph wind speeds and EF-5 being “violent” with wind speeds of more than 200 mph. NWS’s survey of Kosciusko also reports the circulation associated with the tornado led to a microburst that hit the northwest side of Syracuse. Damage occurred to the Wawasee High School athletic complex and points north, including Boston and Brooklyn streets. Along the streets there was extensive tree damage including limbs and trees uprooted onto structures. Widespread tree damage continued northeastward along the north shore of Syracuse Lake. Rich Rhodes, 12893 N. CR 200W, Milford, said the tornado took down his barn. The barn walls were scattered in the yard, five trees were downed, and there is roof damage to his house, garage and another barn. “It’s still all out there. I got to leave it as-is until the insurance comes,” Rhodes said of the debris. He said he had to have the county highway department help him get his roof off of CR 200W. While Rhodes said the destroyed barn was pretty old, he spent about 100 hours last fall strengthening the sides. He put a new roof on it a couple years ago. He said he pulled a camper and haywagon out of the barn Monday. They didn’t sustain any damage Tuesday, but the camper was pushed a bit off the blocks it was on. A tree landed on the doghouse, and though the dog got wrapped up in the tree with the leash, the dog is OK. The rest of the damage in Kosciusko caused by Tuesday’s early morning storm is being attributed to straight line winds, pending further investigation. Kosciusko County Emergency Management Director Ed Rock said most of what he saw after the storm was tree damage, with some damage to homes. He said he found out late last night about the tornado that had occurred in the northern part of the county. Damage reported to Rock mostly comes from Central Dispatch. If no one calls in the damage to dispatch or his office, he doesn’t know about it. “Otherwise it’s word of mouth, which is not a good system,” he said. He said he puts his contact and other information on his office’s Facebook page. To find it, search “Kosciusko County Indiana Emergency Management.” People can call the Emergency Operations Center at 574-267-7888 and leave a message to report the damage to their property caused by storms. While the center is not always manned, the message will get to him, he said. Rock said he doesn’t have a timeframe to assess the damage from Tuesday’s storm, but said Kosciusko County doesn’t have enough to file for disaster declaration. “Unless there’s a huge amount out there I don’t know about,” he said. He advised people to report even the small amounts of damage from the storm. Daniel R. Holbrook, 14, of Winona Lake, was the only person killed in Kosciusko County in yesterday’s storm. He died when a tree fell on the mobile home he was in, while a neighborhood friend escaped with minor injuries. Titus Funeral Home is accepting donations to help with Holbrook’s funeral costs and other things the family may need due to the loss of their home. Donations may be dropped off or mailed to Titus Funeral Home, 2000 E. Sheridan St., Warsaw, IN 46580. The funeral home’s website states, “Note your funds appropriately for Danny or (great grandmother) Joanne (Holbrook). Any remaining funds from Danny's funeral will go to Joanne.” Thousands of people lost power due to the storm. According to a press release from Kosciusko REMC at 6:51 a.m. today, the co-op and additional crews worked through the night to restore power. All KREMC members except 20 had their power restored. Emergency cleanup continues through today, including replacing broken poles. KREMC reminds everyone to stay away from downed lines and to contact the co-op immediately to report issues, at 574-267-6331 or 800-790-7362. NIPSCO has a map of outages with the number of customers affected at www.nipsco.com/outagecenter It also issues updates on Facebook at Facebook.com/NIPSCO and Twitter at Twitter.com/NIPSCO Kathleen Szot, NIPSCO spokeswoman, said that as of about 9 a.m. today, 35,000 customers across northern Indiana were still without power. At the peak, NIPSCO had about 121,000 customers without power, she said. “We’ve made progress, but there’s still a ways to go,” Szot said. While she didn’t have a number of outages for each county, she indicated the outage map on NIPSCO’s website showed that Warsaw still had 660 customers without power this morning. “The crews will be out all day today. We will make as much progress as possible,” she said. A lot of damage was caused by fallen trees or limbs from the storm. The downed wires have been a main issue, she added. Customers without power can report an outage from a smart phone or other mobile device, on a computer via NIPSCO.com/OutageCenter or by calling NIPSCO Customer Service at 800-4NIPSCO (800-464-7726).
