MOUNT VERNON, Ind. − The storm that became Hurricane Beryl formed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on June 28, hundreds of miles north of Brazil.
Eleven days later, after it had wrecked islands in the Caribbean, soaked the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and roared onshore in Texas, Beryl showed it still had punch, spinning up tornadoes in the Tri-State.
A supercell thunderstorm formed in Western Kentucky and developed what National Weather Service described as a "large and dangerous" tornado that tracked through parts of Union County and crossed the Ohio River into Indiana. In Mount Vernon, the storm ripped off roofs, derailed train cars and hammered mobile homes before cutting north toward the Posey-Gibson county line.
Officials started with the good news − no injuries were reported. But still, there will be weeks of investigations by scientists and insurance adjusters alike, taking in the scale of the damage.
That was scheduled to start on Wednesday, when the National Weather Service planned to send out two damage survey teams to figure out how intense the tornadoes became, and where they fit on the famed Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale.
One team will work on the Kentucky side of the river while the other tracks the damage from Mount Vernon north to near Poseyville, where damage also was reported to homes and other buildings. The small, unincorporated town of Johnson in Gibson County also sustained some damage.
But for the people of Mount Vernon, the Posey County town of more than 6,000 people, they know one thing about the size of the storm without anyone's help: It was big.
The tornado came off the Ohio River from Kentucky and damaged several locations at the Port of Indiana. The port is billed as one of the "largest inland ports" in America by size and shipping volume. Each year, 3,700 barges, 200,000 trucks and 45,000 railcars move through the facility, taking away everything from corn and wheat to limestone and pig iron.
The tornado struck the port just before 4:30 p.m.
"I saw it come down and kind of lift back up, and then come down again," Jerrod Prather, a terminal supervisor for Nutrien Ag Solutions, told the Courier & Press. Prather said he was able to safely watch the tornado storm into Mount Vernon thanks to a well-placed Nutrien Ag Solutions security camera.
From there, the storm hit a nearby Mead Johnson warehouse, a shopping center that includes a grocery store and a Mexican restaurant, and then swept through a mobile home park just to the north.
Speaking to reporters outside the Dollar Tree in a strip mall along Indiana 62, Black Township Fire Department Chief Jay Price said his crews responded to numerous gas leaks and multiple reports of heavy damage. But each place they went, everyone was accounted for.
"Thank god," he said. "... No injuries were reported, as far as I know, anywhere in the county from this tornado or weather system."
Indiana State Police Sgt. Todd Ringle said troopers were also not aware of any traffic-related injuries. The tornado and waves of severe weather slammed Mount Vernon just as workers began their return drives home, backing up traffic along major thoroughfares and country roads alike as first responders closed roads due to debris, downed power lines and reported gas leaks.
Cleanup, though, will take a while. A warehouse for Kenco Logistics sustained serious damage. Multiple structures at the Port of Indiana took some of the brunt, as well, including a grain bin that lost its roof. Fourteen families were displaced at the mobile home park.
Price was working a medical run on the west end of town when damage reports started rolling in.
"We had a little bit delayed response with it because our 911 center actually went down," he said. "So they were coming back up and notifying us that, hey, there were some issues on the east side of Mount Vernon. I think I was the first arriving unit."
Price said he and his crews fielded damage at the Consolidated Grain and Barge facility. There also were overturned train cars and a slew of mangled utility poles.
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