National Weather Service already started on storm surveys across four states

The National Weather Service office in Paducah has already started what will be a busy week of surveying storm damage from Friday night and early Saturday morning.

Initial targets for surveys include six tracks in Missouri, four in Illinois (Perry, Franklin, Johnson counties), one in McCracken County, Kentucky, and one in Indiana.

By visually inspecting and measuring the scope of damage, meteorologists can pinpoint the origin, intensity, length and width of each tornado, or determine if it was actually straight-line winds that occurred.

As of Saturday night, meteorologists returned from their first day of surveys with some preliminary results:

Poplar Bluff, Missouri: EF-3 tornado with estimated peak winds of 138 mph.

Five miles west of Somerville, IN (Gibson County): EF-2 damage with estimated peak winds of 115 mph.

Oakland City, IN (Gibson County): EF-2 damage with estimated peak winds of 117 mph.

Algiers, IN (Pike County): EF-2 damage with estimated peak winds of 120 mph.

It will probably take a week or more to survey all of the affected areas. 

Tornado survey results will be posted on their website www.weather.gov/paducah. Additional surveys for locations not shown on the map may be needed as additional damage reports are received.