Widespread damage in Dubois County points to overnight tornado

UPDATE: The National Weather Service confirmed an F1 tornado with 90 miles per hour winds touched down west of Haysville.

The northeastern portion of the county has widespread damage, but no injuries have been reported so far from the overnight storms and a suspected tornado.

“I have no confirmation about a tornado yet, but in my years of experience, I can tell you that a tornado did hit Dubois County,” Emergency Management Director Tammy Humbert told the Dubois County Commissioners Monday morning.

She asked the commissioners to declare an emergency for the county due to the amount of damage she has seen and had reported so far.

Humbert stated damages in the swath that stretches about 12 miles from Haysville across the northern portion of the county and continues into Orange County is the most extensive she’s seen since 2011 when multiple tornados hit Dubois County.

“We have multiple houses damaged, turkey barns destroyed, and tree debris everywhere,” she stated in a phone interview this morning.

Crews were struggling with blocked roads from downed trees overnight, and power outages hit more than 2,000 homes. “REC had done a phenomenal job getting power back up,” Humbert said this morning.

The emergency declaration allows the county to file for federal disaster assistance if damages to homes exceed the federal threshold to qualify for federal disaster relief. She is unsure if the damages will exceed that threshold for assistance since it is limited to dwellings, not structures like barns and equipment.

A phone line will be set up for residents to report damage soon.

The National Weather Service is expected to be on the scene later today to make an assessment of the damages to confirm whether it was a tornado and its size.

The storm continued into Orange County where it caused extensive damage in downtown Paoli as well.