NEW:
The National Weather Service out of North Webster, Indiana, has confirmed that two tornadoes touched down Monday night. Both were category EF-1 tornadoes. One touchdown occured six miles southwest of Wakarusa with maximum wind speeds of 110 miles per hour. The other touched down one mile north of North Webster with maximum winds of 90 miles per hour.
Monday's storms caused damage linked to the death of a woman found clutching a young boy in her storm-battered mobile home in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Officials say she died at a hospital after firefighters pulled her from debris, but the boy believed to be her grandson had only minor injuries. The woman has been identified as 73-year-old Isabel E. Atencio.
ORIGINAL POST:
The National Weather Service was deluged with storm reports following last night’s weather that tore through the Michiana area. A team from the agency will be in Elkhart County three miles southwest of Wakarusa today surveying damage that may have been caused by a suspected tornado.
According to the NWS out of North Webster, tree damage throughout the listening area was widespread. Pea-sized hail hit an area near Bourbon. In Berrien County a transformer was blown down. Tens of thousands of people are without power today. This morning Indiana Michigan Power is reporting 37,632 outages as of 10:45am.
NIPSCO is reporting 45,593 outages as of 11am.
You can read more details from the North Webster based NWS storm reports here.
Meantime, the system that hit our area also took a toll throughout the Midwest earlier in the day Monday.
It was a rare wind storm with power similar to an inland hurricane swept across the Midwest, blowing over trees, flipping vehicles, causing widespread property damage and leaving tens of thousands of homes without power. The storm known as a derecho lasted several hours Monday as it tore across eastern Nebraska, Iowa and parts of Wisconsin and Illinois. A scientist at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center says the storm had the wind speed of a major hurricane, and likely caused more widespread damage than a normal tornado.