All of our neighbors were emerging too. Several had had their car windshields shattered and there was visible damage to all our properties from the hail. One neighbor had been caught in the hailstorm in his truck while attempting to pick up his younger children from the school latchkey program. He'd had to turn back because of downed power lines but rushed out again when we told him that the school had been hit. Fortunately, their aunt had picked them up and she brought them home soon after he left the house. Curtis went around our house taking pictures for insurance purposes and I've posted a few of those below. We were able to receive texts but not call out or send until Saturday and we did not have cable/internet until today (Monday) so we were unable to see the coverage on the news or know how we could help.
We were very fortunate but our hearts break for those north of 160 in Henryville, Marysville and Pekin who have lost everything. Curtis walked into Henryville on Saturday after I'd left for camp, took pictures of some of the wreckage and tried to speak with people on how we can help. He was already able to help The Shamrock Pet Foundation bring in supplies for the dogs and cats. We will be helping as much as we can with the relief effort but as you can see, it's hard to know where to begin.
Many of our plastic fence caps were broken by the hail.
There was mud on the ceiling of the porch from hailballs hitting the mud in the flowerbeds and splashing upwards.
Hail ball embedded in he mud.
Damage above garage door frame.
Size of hail in Curtis' hand (yes, Dad, he saved one in the freezer)
Damage to garage eaves.
Nursery window broken, it cracked diagonally to the top.
This is a view of the school from the south. You can see the mini school bus in the middle of the picture.
St. Francis was one of the first relief sites set up. It has some roof damage (looks like a piece of metal sheered through part of the roof in this picture) but is still standing which is amazing because everything around it is destroyed.
There was a gas station. It had a trucking company beside it and you can see that there is a semi that was lifted onto the building. The only thing left of the home that was across the street is its foundation.
Goodfella's Restuarant (the local pizza parlor/amazing breakfast buffet) with apartments in the top levels.
School bus that was lifted and crashed back down. It was originally in the middle of 31 but they drug it back over to the parking lot.
This scene is becoming the iconic image of the tornado. One of the school buses smashed into the little restaurant across the street from the school. If you look at the picture closely, you'll see that the frame of the bus is actually parallel with the restaurant (back wheels are under debris on left side of pic) and the body of the bus was sheered from the frame and pushed into the building.
This used car lot is just on the south side of 160 and now looks more like a junk car lot.
