Post office destroyed, houses damaged by tornadoes in Bloomington, surrounding counties

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Post office destroyed, houses damaged by tornadoes in Bloomington, surrounding counties

Tornadoes touched down in Bloomington, Greene County, Brown County and elsewhere across Indiana on Friday, May 16, as a line of storms caused destruction across parts of the Midwest.

Some of the first reports were from Linton, where the police department sent out a news release stating that at 6:50 p.m., “a confirmed tornado was located over Linton, or 31 miles southeast of Terre Haute, moving east at 45 mph.” The release said weather spotters had confirmed the tornado.

A transformer and power lines lay in the road along South Rogers Street while damage can be seen in the trees and houses in the background. Just down the street, the Clear Creek Post Office was destroyed by the tornado that hit the area on Friday, May 16, 2025.

Social media reports from Greene County showed photos of softball-sized hail.

At 7:30 p.m. Ashley Byarlay was driving home when she watched a tornado form over the housing subdivision off Gordon Pike just south of Batchelor Middle School. She took videos on

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as she drove and explained what she was seeing.

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Michael and Ashley Byarlay survey the damage left behind by a tornado that touched down Friday, May 16, 2025, in the Clear Creek area of Monroe County. People in vehicles, behind them, were driving to the area to see the damage for themselves.

“My dream job was to be a storm chaser,” she said, “so I got to live my dream job today.”

She said she watched the tornado touch down near South Rogers and That Road and then lift up and travel farther east before dropping down again. The Clear Creek Post Office was hit as were several other buildings. Transformers and power lines were laying in the street as people came out from their homes and drove by in cars to see the damage.

Her husband, Michael Byarlay, was waiting at home. Both were surveying the damage later, instead of going on the date they had planned. While the sun set and sheriff deputies began to walk down the road, looking at the damage, the scanner on Michael’s cell phone was alerting emergency personnel in Brown County that Ind. 135 was closed due to debris in the road, hindering ambulances from helping people in the line of the storms there.

“I heard there were two dead horses south of here,” Michael said, pointing toward the area close to the Bloomington Speedway.

At 9 p.m. Friday, the Monroe County Emergency Management

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page posted an alert that the county had issued a travel advisory due to hazardous road conditions. Ind. 45 near Abel Nursery just west of Bloomington was closed to traffic.

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A transformer and power lines lay in the street along South Rogers Street near the intersection with That Road, where a tornado caused damage on Friday, May 16, 2025.

Contact Carol Kugler at *****@*****.tld.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times:

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