Cleanup and damage assessment efforts are underway throughout the region following a wave of severe weather the evening of June 21.
In Newburgh, a tornado skipped along the State Road 66 corridor, striking and prompting evacuations at apartment complexes at Park Place on High Pointe Drive Drive and Bell Pointe on Messiah Drive. A shelter has been opened at the Phoenix Event Center, 3433 Libbert Road, Newburgh, for displaced residents.
Shopping plazas along the highway also took hits, with major roof damage at Apple Center, 7844 W. State Road 66. The following morning, Kim’s, a consignment store located in the same shopping center, announced on social media that it was closing indefinitely. Indiana State Police advised storm-related damage at the nearby busy intersection of State Roads 66 and 261 and urged travelers to allow extra time or take alternate routes.
“The main damage was behind where the Chick-fil-A is. The Apple Center took some damage. It came right down the expressway,” says Newburgh Town Manager Chris Cooke, who noted that those properties have Newburgh addresses but are outside the town’s official boundary.
Officials with the National Weather Service arrived in Warrick County early June 22 to begin evaluations along State Road 66 and in the Lynnville and Chandler areas, where there were also tornado reports. Indiana Department of Homeland Security staff also were headed to the area.
“We are having all the people come in that we need on Day One to help. Our first responders have been phenomenal, they did a tremendous job last night. Now, it’s on us to assess,” says Warrick County Emergency Management Agency Director Matthew Goebel.
A tree toppled onto Annie Carrington’s Elberfield, Indiana, home while she and her family were sheltering inside in a windowless bathroom. “We are all physically OK but definitely shaken,” Carrington says. “That is my childhood home, and to experience such damage has been shocking on many levels. Many of our neighbors came over to our house right away after the first wave of storms had passed to check on us, as well as a local storm chaser. In Elberfeld, community is a very big thing, and we all stand together in times of hardship. …As a family, our big worry is what is to come, as our house was significantly damaged.”
Damage wasn’t restricted to Warrick County. Channel 14 WFIE reported that Blythe Chapel, a nearly 100-year-old church in the Gibson County community of Owensville, was destroyed, and damage also was reported at Gibson Southern High School and in Fort Branch. During a Facebook Live on Sunday night, Gibson County Sheriff Bruce Vanoven said the Sheriff’s Office received reports that severe weather sirens in Owensville and in east Princeton didn’t activate. Gibson County crews are assessing the sirens.
Despite the property damage, CenterPoint Energy reported Sunday night that only three percent of electric customers in Southwestern Indiana experienced power outages.
Early reports from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center, National Weather Service and EMA directors show that among 40 total tornado reports across Indiana and Illinois, about 15 were in the Evansville region, says Jeff Lyons, Channel 14 WFIE chief meteorologist.
“The exact number of tornadoes will be lower than those numbers due to duplicate reports and multiple reports of the same storm,” Lyons says. “The heaviest damage was around Newburgh and also across southern Gibson County. Survey crews with the National Weather Service will assess the damage and determine the EF ratings, path lengths, and widths.”
Summer months are not usually considered tornado season, but Lyons noted there are exceptions, including one recent one: A July 9, 2024, EF-3 tornado destroyed a Mount Vernon, Indiana, manufacturing facility. “It was the strongest July tornado on record and also the biggest July outbreak on record with seven tornadoes across Union County, Kentucky, and Posey and Gibson counties in Southwestern Indiana,” Lyons says.
