The National Weather Service has shared a preliminary recap of the strong thunderstorms and tornadoes that were spotted in Illinois and northwest Indiana this past Thursday, June 11th.
Information gathered so far by NWS indicates multiple areas of destructive, straight-line wind damage and heavy rainfall.
At least 17 tornadoes were reported by the Chicago area of the NWS as of Sunday evening, with a few of those making their way through Merrillville and Hobart, and Hebron and Kouts areas. A preliminary rating of the Hebron to Kouts tornado has it as an EF-3, which means winds were 136 – 165 mph.
Particularly strong damage was reported in the Merrillville and Hebron areas, where they experienced an EF-2 tornado with winds between 111 and 135 mph.
During the aftermath of the storms, portions of US Highways 12, 20, and State Road 49 were closed while crews conducted cleanup efforts. Several local roads were closed as well, due to storm damage.
The Starke County Highway Department reported multiple updates over the weekend, sharing that its crews began working to get roads cleared the same evening of the storms. Work to clear roads is expected to go into this week, and multiple local agencies are involved in the efforts, including but not limited to multiple area Fire Departments, the Starke County Sheriff’s Department, and the Starke County EMA.
Several WKVI listeners shared their photos of storm damage, including downed trees, wind damage, and other storm debris. You can see those photos on WKVI’s Facebook page.
Widespread power outages were reported across the area during storms, with NIPSCO reporting over 86,000 customers without power in its service territory, and Kankakee Valley REMC reporting outages for almost 9,000 members.
Statewide, numbers indicate that there may have been more than 117,000 Hoosiers without power the following day.
The latest information available at the time this article was written shows that NIPSCO is reporting that 86% of impacted customers have had their power restored, with approximately 12,000 customers remaining without power.
Kankakee Valley REMC shared several updates over the weekend as well; with damage including broken utility poles and transmission outages at multiple substations. The latest storm update from REMC shares that fewer than 40 members remained without power at the time, and those customers were expected to have power restored Saturday.
As of Sunday, June 14th, no fatalities had been publicly reported in Indiana from the June 11th storms, though damage assessments do remain ongoing.
