Tornado May Have Hit Osgood Thursday, Forecasters Say

Preliminary reports indicate that a tornado may have touched down in Osgood Thursday.
Preliminary reports indicate that a tornado may have touched down in Osgood Thursday.

The National Weather Service (NWS) might be close to confirming that a tornado did in fact touch down in Ripley County Thursday night.

Ripley County EMA and officials from the NWS have been in the Osgood area on North Finks Road on Friday assessing storm damage.

A home was damaged with multiple windows blown out and knocked off of its foundation.

Ken Haydu, meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, Ohio, indicated that the windows were blown out on each side of the trailer, and installation blown in to the home by an east wind. He said wind was blowing to the south and southwest on Thursday night.

“The only way they could have had that east wind is a tornado,” Haydu added.

“Right now everything is preliminary but the one thing we’re pretty sure of is that we had a tornado down here last night,” said Ken Haydu. “What were trying to judge is how strong it was, an EF-0 or EF-1, were the winds 70-80 mile an hour or were they 100 mile an hour.”

Inside that home last night, the homeowner and her granddaughter took shelter in an interior room of the residence.

“I think that is what saved them from injury or possibly worse,” Haydu said. “When we put out those tornado warning’s we always tell people to go to an interior room, that’s the safest place to be.”

“I think Ripley County now has a classic example that it does work,” Haydu explained.

Less than a mile from the house, a barn was damaged as well as power lines were knocked down. Haydu is assessing the location on Friday afternoon.

WRBI will keep you up-to-date on this developing story.