Confirmed tornado leaves damage in Jefferson County

Video with this story is from Shannon Rosales. It shows a tornado on March 14, 2024, near Madison, Indiana, heading toward Vevay.

MADISON, Ind. (WISH) — At least 29 homes were damaged in Jefferson County after a tornado on Thursday afternoon, the Indiana State Police and WISH-TV’s Storm Track 8 report.

Matt True, director of Jefferson County Emergency Management, told News 8 on Thursday night that two people received minor injuries. He believes three tornados touched down, leaving 97 structures, including 29 homes, damaged.

The tornado had winds from 86 to 110 mph, Storm Track 8 reports.

Homes have been damaged, and trees and power lines were downed, says Sgt. Stephen Wheeles of the state police. Duke Energy reports 3,584 outages, more than two-thirds of them in the Jefferson County.

No major injuries have been reported so far, but he said they are still checking on people. Police are asking people to avoid the area.

Wheeles says it appears to authorities on the scene that the tornado skipped through a few places. He also shared a photo of one piece of hail that was the size of a baseball. Such hail damaged multiple Indiana State Police vehicles, he says.

Storm Track 8 Chief Meteorologist Ashley Brown has confirmed the tornado in the storm.

The National Weather Service office in Louisville, Kentucky, at 1:48 p.m. Thursday issued a tornado warning for central Jefferson County in south central Indiana and northwestern Trimble County in central Kentucky. The Ohio River separates the two counties.

The tornado warning said a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located 10 miles northeast of Scottsburg, moving east at 45 mph. The storm also was reported to contain golf ball-sized hail. The warning said the storm was expected to hit Madison around 1:55 p.m.

Madison is a city of 12,200 residents about halfway between Louisville and Cincinnati.