November Tornado Damage

Everyone knows that tornadoes are common weather occurrences during Indiana’s peculiar spring and summer weather patterns, but a chain of 26 confirmed tornados throughout the state in the middle of November should cause some alarm. It is known as the second biggest tornado outbreak in Indiana. On November 17^th, three of these tornadoes damaged many parts of our community and devastated a handful of local families. Sophomore Karis Tucker and Freshman Lucas Mills are two students who were stunned to see their farms destroyed by the tornadoes.

There were three tornadoes in Kosciusko County, the first tornado was an EF1 and ran near Talma and went past Mentone. The second one was an EF2 and went from Rock lake to east of Silver Lake. The third tornado was an EF1 tornado going from Oswego to Warsaw.

 Many people realized how bad the devastation was and wanted to help. Church members, fire fighters, police, neighbors, family, and friends from the community graciously helped both farms clean up the destruction.  Fifteen students from TVHS spent their day cleaning up the Mills farm and the Tucker’s farm. With the help of construction crews and the other community members, Tucker farms was almost entirely picked up. The next day twenty students visited the Mills farm for the afternoon and picked up the remainder of the damage.

Junior Cody Demske helped clean up the farms. “I loved knowing I make a difference in someone’s life, its heart breaking to see someone go through that, it’s hard to imagine putting yourself in their place. It was cold but well worth it.”

 All the students and community members courteously sorted through the debris and recycled loose parts they could find. With debris scattered all over the fields and piled on top of each other, the job could have easily taken weeks to clean up but was finished in only three days due to the help from community members. We have an incredible community, when someone is in need of help our community steps forward and helps them.