When suspected tornadoes struck the Josephine area last week, the National Weather Service said there was not enough evidence to warrant a confirming investigation. Yesterday, the agency confirmed that it was indeed two tornadoes that struck the area on Saturday night.
The cleanup will continue today in Burrell Township, where an EF-1 tornado with wind speeds of up to 90 miles per hour touched down just before 8:30 PM along High Rise Drive. As many as twenty-five properties were damaged, including a portion of a roof and chimney torn off one home, dozens of trees knocked down, and some vehicles that were damaged. The twister tracked eastward and snapped off and uprooted trees along a 35-yard wide path.
Just minutes later, an EF-0 tornado touched down along Goral Road at about the point at which it becomes Coal Road, northwest of Coral-Graceton and southwest of Homer City in Center Township. It packed winds as high as seventy miles per hour and damaged around a dozen trees.
No one was injured. These were the first two confirmed tornadoes in Indiana County since April 28th, 2002, when an EF-3 twister hit between Indiana and Homer City and an EF-0 tornado hit in the Jacksonville area.
