A powerful tornado has caused extensive damage and killed at least 11 people in Southern Indiana and Kentucky according to a CNN news story.
One resident of the trailer park told WFIE of Evansville she saw a tornado pick up a car with members of her family in it and toss the vehicle into a tree. Brandi Crawley said no one was seriously injured.
"The damage is very, very extensive," said Chad Bennett, an assistant fire chief in Newburgh in Warrick County. He said the area hardest hit was just north of the city limits.
"Now that daylight has come, it is making it a little more easy to see the scope of the damage, and it is very shocking."
Bennett estimated the damage path was about 3/4 of a mile wide and 20 miles long.
Before this tornado there had only been 7 killer tornadoes killing a total of ten people according to this page from the Storm Prediction Center. Tornadoes are not uncommon in November but the strength of this tornado does sound more like the tornadoes typically seen in May and June. The National Weather Service should release data about the strength of this tornado tomorrow.
Update: An MSNBC.com article quotes a local meteorologist who says the tornado was an F3 or higher.
Ryan Presley, a weather service meteorologist in Paducah, Ky., said a single tornado touched down near Smith Mills in western Kentucky and cut a 15- to 20-mile swath through Indiana's Vanderburgh and Warrick counties.
The tornado appears to have been an F3, with winds ranging from 158 mph to 206 mph, and may have been even stronger, Presley said.
