Strong storms ravaged eastern Indiana and western Ohio on Thursday evening, killing at least three people.
In addition to the fatalities, towns were destroyed and many were left without power, according to CNN.
“I can best describe it as a bomb going off … unbelievable damage,” Sheriff Randall Dodds of Logan County, Ohio, told CNN Friday morning.
Logan County was the site of the three fatalities due to a suspected tornado.
Many people were injured due to the storms, including 38 in Indiana and more than 20 in Ohio. Complete totals will not be known for hours, per CNN, due to massive destruction.
“The storms were part of a sprawling system that put more than 45 million people from Texas to western Pennsylvania under threat of severe storms Thursday into early Friday.
More than 5,000 homes and businesses in Indiana and more than 20,000 in Ohio were without power early Friday,” according to PowerOutage.us.
CNN reported, “In Winchester, Indiana, state police were helping with search and rescue efforts after a tornado likely struck the area, and temporary shelters have been set up for residents,” agency spokesperson Sgt. Scott Keegan said on social media.
“State police Superintendent Doug Carter described the storm in Winchester as a ‘terrible, terrible event,’” per CNN.
Now, all the structures that were damaged will have to be investigated to find any missing people.
“Every single one of these facilities are going to have to be checked, especially those that have completely collapsed,” he said in a news conference.
Up to half of the buildings in Selma, Indiana, were damaged, the Delaware County Emergency Management Agency said.
Survey teams from the National Weather Service will be in the Winchester and Selma areas Friday to assess the damage, the service said.
