Three tornadoes touched down Wednesday afternoon in Indiana, damaging numerous structures in Kokomo and leaving 15-20 people injured, authorities said.
The Indiana State Police said the injuries occurred in Kokomo and rural Howard Country.
“All of the reported injuries are considered minor at this time,” the state police said. “Most of the injuries were the result of flying debris. There are no reported deaths.”
Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight said the storm caused “pretty severe property damage” and downed many trees.
“I am in a residential neighborhood and there is a lot of roof damage, windows out, a roof completely taken off the home, power out,” he said. “It is pretty substantial. I have seen damage to about 50 homes so far. We are still looking at the damage.”
A temporary state of emergency was declared in Howard County and Kokomo, meaning all roads are closed except for public safety and emergency vehicles.
Power was knocked out across the region, with Duke Energy reporting 29,000 outages and IPL reporting 7,500, said CNN affiliate WISH.
Photos and video posted online showed a Starbucks in Kokomo flattened by the storm. Jamie Ball tweeted: “@Starbucks absolutely destroyed blocks from my hotel @CourtyardHotels in Kokomo, IN!”
No customers or employees were injured, Starbucks said, according to CNN affiliate WRTV.
One tornado was reported west of Crawfordville, said meteorologist Dave Tucek. Another was east of Indianapolis.
Indianapolis remained under a tornado warning.
Republican vice presidential candidate and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence left the campaign trail and returned home, arriving Wednesday night in Indianapolis and visiting an emergency operations center.
“So, we’re headed home and we’re going to be home so long as it takes for us to make sure these communities have the resources and the support they need to put themselves back together after these very violent storms,” he told reporters.
