Indianapolis News and Headlines

Actions

People in Kokomo say they are grateful to have survived Wednesday's tornado

Posted at 6:00 PM, Aug 25, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-25 18:23:19-04

KOKOMO, Ind. -- Looking at the damage, it's hard to believe that more people were not hurt when a tornado hit Kokomo Wednesday.

Terry Munson got a text from his sister, "We're in the closet, house has been hit, help."

Munson raced across town to the Cedar Crest neighborhood to try and save his sister and 74-year-old mother.

He found a tree on top of their house and the house had been destroyed.

Munson says it's a miracle they survived and now he's salvaging what he can, "I wanted to remodel the house and now we have a really good excuse to remodel and rebuild."

Katie Myers wasn't home when the tornado touched down, but she was left to clean up the debris and eight years of memories.

"We're all safe, our dog who was inside was safe... things are replaceable," said Myers.

Over on 17th Street, Shawna East ran to help a neighbor, "She was in the kitchen and she was barely hanging onto her walker... she said she was walking into the bedroom and the tornado knocked her down."

Across the street, Jeremy Hancock saw the storm coming.  He got out of its path, but his boat and RV were hit and his motorcycle was buried in some debris.

"Unbelievable, that's the only word I can put for it, it's not something I can really explain other than the power of a tornado is unbelievable," said Hancock.

RTV6's Mike Pelton went live on Facebook Wednesday from the Cedar Crest neighborhood with a look at the tornado damage.  Watch his report below:

MORE |Kokomo EF3 tornado reached wind speeds of 152 mph | EF3, EF2 and two EF1 torndaoes touched down Wednesday | Tornado on Indy's northeast side was an EF0

PHOTOS | Devastation and storm damage