A National Weather Service Science and Operating Officer says a six-mile path of damage through the Salem area is most likely the result of a single tornado path.
Ben Herzog says the path studied Saturday began at the Salem Fire Training Station on the Selmaville Road, continued to the Andrews Court area, across I-57, into the South Broadway-West Lake Street neighborhood where dozens of homes and businesses were damaged, and ended with the destruction of a barn on U.S. 50 east of County Farm Road on Salem’s east side. It didn’t take Herzog long to determine the damage was from a tornado following the initial stops.
“A lot of tree damage, but one thing we are noting is a lot of the trees are kinda falling in different directions. The other thing we are noticing is the damage path is pretty confined which is a clear-cut indicator we are dealing with a tornado as opposed to straight-line winds. A lot of time with straight-line winds you’ll see a lot more of a spread-out path instead of the concentrated path here.”
Herzog says the tornado was at an EF0 to EF1 level.
“The highest end damage we found we estimate at 105 miles an hour wind speeds. We found at least one home shifted off its foundation and there was very substantial roof damage to a lot of the buildings just east of the Casey’s store.”
Herzog says the tornado appeared to have a 90-mile-per-hour wind speed when it damaged trees and an outbuilding at the Salem Fire Training Center and caused a pole barn garage to collapse onto vehicles underneath it on Andrews Court.
He also attempted to try and find a damage track near the northeast Marion-Clay County line where radar also indicated rotation, but could find no damage.
Herzog says the severe thunderstorm is the same one that went on to produce the tornadoes that claimed three lives apiece in Robinson, Illinois, and Sullivan, Indiana. Both communities received heavy damage in parts of their communities as well.
