[Ang]

I heard about your tornados last night. It made the news all the way out here in Wyoming!! I also know about the police car that got picked up and flipped over.
My thoughts and prayers are with all you guys and I hope none of you were injured or lost anything in the storm.

[Max Main]

Southside, can you get the story on the thread, and the pix too? They are very drmatic.

[Southsider2k12]

The ND hasn't updated yet, but let me try to find some other stuff...

http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/397294.php?co...ontentId=449228
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Violent Storms Cause Damage Across Will County, Indiana WATCH


CHICAGO (CBS 2) - Sirens went off in Plainfield and Naperville and a funnel cloud was spotted in Bolingbrook, but the National Weather Service could not confirm that a tornado actually touched down in that area.

Even so, the winds were strong enough to lift loose objects into the air, including a car that was flung onto the roof of a suburban nursing home.

Lynn Behringer, spokeswoman for Will County Emergency Management, said a car in the parking lot of the Lakewood Nursing Home in Plainfield was lifted off the ground and landed on the roof of the nursing home. The car then rolled off the building and back onto the parking lot.

Julie Hearst, a spokeswoman for the nursing home, said they evacuated their residents into an interior part of the building for safety precautions. No injuries were reported and fire officials determined the building was still structurally sound.

Across the street, at the Indian Trail Middle School, most students had gone home for the day, but Plainfield Schools Superintendent John Harper said the principal acted quickly to protect students who were still there.

"We had about 75 to 100 children there for after-school activities. He moved them into emergency position. Some parents had started to arrive after the sirens had silenced and started to take their kids home. We held kids at some of our other schools that were still in attendance until we got an all-clear from Plainfield Emergency Management," Harper said.

Meanwhile, a tornado watch was in effect for several counties in northwest Indiana and southwest Michigan. Residents are advised to seek shelter immediately in an interior room of the lowest level of their building.

The LaPorte County, Ind., Sheriff's police said a police officer was injured when a tornado touched down in the area.

As CBS 2 Northwest Indiana Bureau Chief Pamela Jones reports, Michigan City police were blocking roads near where the tornado touched down around 4 p.m. The officer's car apparently flipped over in the high winds and the female officer was trapped inside her vehicle for some time.

Many tree limbs were snapped off, some trees were uprooted and at least one small shed or house was demolished in the storm.

"Just like, like it was collecting water, just black, looked like shingles were flying up,” said La Porte resident Bryan Starkey.

CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports Bryan Starkey said the funnel cloud he watched form over his house appeared to consume everything in its path. Just blocks from where Starkey lives, the walls of a house were reduced to cinder blocks and trees were split in half.

“It's a mess,” said La Porte resident Nikki Baker. “You don’t think you can get hit, but everybody is vulnerable.”

Crews were called in to clear away debris. The storm that rolled through flattened trees that ended up toppling power lines.

CBS 2 West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli was on the scene in Bolingbrook shortly after the storm hit there.

A large trampoline was picked up by the high winds and wrapped around a tree about 300 yards away near 127th and Essington in Bolingbrook.

A spokesman for the Bolingbrook Police Department said their office fielded several calls about high winds shortly after 3 p.m., including one off-duty Bolingbrook Fire Department batallion chief who reported sighting a funnel cloud. Because many schools were about to let out, students were kept inside until the storm had passed.

"Debris is always very scary in a storm like this. It can cause injuries, but luckily not today," he said.

Many homes suffered minor damage and loose objects like lawn furniture were blown around in the high winds.

Web Extra Video: Tornado Touches Down In Southwest Suburbs; Severe Weather In Indiana - A powerful and violent storm tore through the Chicago area Thursday afternoon, setting off tornado sirens in a number of suburbs. Officials in northwest Indiana said a tornado touched down there, injuring a police officer.

Also think link has some video...

http://cbs2chicago.com/northwestindianabur..._116183933.html

[Ang]

Thanks!! That was very informative. I really appreciate the update. I've heard from several friends (including my friend who lives off Fail Rd) and everyone is okay. I like that CBS-2 website. I'm going to bookmark it!
Thanks again

[Southsider2k12]

Heres the stuff from the ND



Twister sighted! Mike Koehler of 4265 N. County Road 175 East took this photo of the tornado from his front yard. Provided

http://www.michigancityin.com/articles/200.../news/news2.txt

It came up so fast, we didn't have time to do anything'

By Jason Miller, The News-Dispatch

GALENA TOWNSHIP - Carolyn Szymkowski was standing near a window inside her County Road 600 North home Thursday afternoon when the skies darkened, “everything got really calm” and a loud, rumbling noise began to engulf her house.

“I heard my husband yell ‘We've got a tornado, get away from the window,'” she said. “It came up so fast, we didn't have time to do anything. We didn't have any warning or anything. And as soon as it came up, it stopped.

“It got really loud there for a few seconds, though.”

The area around Szymkowski's northeast LaPorte County home was hit with what witnesses are calling a tornado around 4 p.m. Thursday. She and her husband Ray lost several trees and part of their fence in the storm, which also apparently blew a LaPorte County Sheriff's department vehicle driven by Det. Shayna Mireles off Fail Road into a field less than a mile from Szymkowski's home.

Several reports of rotating clouds and funnel clouds were made in the area just north of the intersection of Fail Road and U.S. 20.

Karen Nelson, who lives with her family just down the road from the Szymkowskis, said she was in Rolling Prairie when the storm hit. When she got back to her home as the storm was winding down, she noticed a number of trees had been blown over onto fencing that kept some 12 horses in a pen at her home.

As far as she could tell, the horses were safe in a barn.

“I went to Rolling at 3:30, and when I got back at 4:30, everything was flooded and all the trees were down,” she said. “We've got to figure a way to get the fence back up. (The break in the fence) is pretty inviting to the horses.”

Just across Fail Road from the site of Mireles' accident, Carlena Kellems and her daughter Corianne were standing outside Carlena's boyfriend's home, marveling at the number of trees felled in the storm at the home.

The two were speeding to the house during the height of the storm to find shelter when police told them they couldn't travel up Fail Road because of the accident and several trees that had fallen across the road.

The two were amazed that none of the trees that fell at the home damaged the structure.

“I can't believe it's still standing,” Carlena Kellems said. “We don't have a basement, so we were heading here. That didn't work.”

Corianne said she and her mother drove through hail and howling winds to get to the house.

“We even had our cats and dogs in the car with us,” she said.

When the pair finally got to the house, they said it took a “minute or two” to realize what was happening across the street.

“It took us a while,” Corianne said.

Contact reporter Jason miller at jmiller@thenewsdispatch.com.

http://www.michigancityin.com/articles/200.../news/news1.txt

Tornado touches down

By Jason Miller, The News-Dispatch

Firefighters stand near the overturned police cruiser of LaPorte County Sheriff's Det. Shayna Mireles. The car was blown over the fence by Thursday's tornado. Photo/Jason Miller

Twister tosses squad car over fence

GALENA TOWNSHIP - A LaPorte County Sheriff's detective was in good condition Thursday night after her department-issued vehicle was blown off Fail Road and carried into a field during what many local residents said was a tornado.

Det. Shayna Mireles was taken to LaPorte Hospital on Thursday shortly after 4 p.m. with cuts to her face and several bumps and bruises, according to LaPorte County Chief Deputy Coroner John Sullivan, who was helping clean up after the incident.

“She was conscious and talking,” he added. “She was extremely lucky.”

According to LaPorte County Sheriff Mike Mollenhauer, Mireles had left a seminar at Heston Hills Banquet Center, just a couple miles north of the accident scene on Fail Road, when her Dodge Intrepid was picked up by strong winds, hurled over a fence and dumped on its roof in a field.

Mollenhauer said Mireles had left the seminar after spotters reported seeing a funnel cloud touch down near Fail Road and U.S. 20. Mireles left to check on her mother who Mollenhauer said lives near that intersection.

A witness told police she was driving behind Mireles when she saw the car “stood up straight on end,” Sullivan said. The fence that stands between Fail Road and the spot on which Mireles's car landed was untouched, leading police to believe the winds carried the vehicle into the air and over the fence.

LaPorte County police, along with Indiana State police and Michigan City police, sped to the area in what still was a torrential downpour, with hail and dangerous lightning.

For just over a minute, some 25 minutes after the accident, the skies darkened again and hail began to fall as strong lighting struck several trees in the area.

Mireles' car was flipped in a 100-yard clearing along a stretch of Fail Road that is surrounded by trees. Two homes across Fail Road from the site of the accident appeared to be unharmed, save for a number of trees that were sheared off surrounding one of the homes.

The first mention of tornadic activity came across the police scanner at 4:04 p.m. with a report of cloud rotation between Fail Road and Indiana 39.

The next report, minutes after the first, said the rotating cloud was on the ground. According to radar, the cell that generated the activity traveled from that area through the Fail Road area, then through the Hesston area and toward Three Oaks, Mich., going northeast. It had passed Three Oaks by 4:45 p.m., according to radar.

Michigan City K-9 Officer Doug Samuelson was at the scene Thursday and said he and his K-9 officer Freddo were on their way home from Michigan City, driving east on U.S. 20, when he saw what he said was a funnel cloud touch down north of 20.

“I told Freddo ‘hang on, we're gonna go for a ride,'” Samuelson said.

Sullivan didn't know when Mireles might be released from the hospital, but said she appeared to be in “pretty good” condition, “considering what she went through.”

[mcstumper]

I drove by there yesterday and must say its a little odd. There is a tree down here and a branch down there... then all the sudden there is a barn that is demolished. Mother Nature is funny like that.

[Max Main]

Yeah, hilarious.

[mcstumper]

Yeah, hilarious.

funny - adj - 2. strange; odd; curious

[Ang]

funny - adj - 2. strange; odd; curious

I knew that's what you meant.

[Max Main]

Moi aussi.



What really is odd is how sharply delineated the damage zone usually is. You would think that there would be an intermediate zone of moderate damage.

[mcstumper]

Moi aussi.
What really is odd is how sharply delineated the damage zone usually is. You would think that there would be an intermediate zone of moderate damage.

Just wanted to make sure that I didn't come off as reveling in the plight of others. The non linear damage would almost seem to indicate that the tornado skipped across the landscape. Have you ever heard the theory that because Michigan City sits between the lake and the Valpo moraine that we are nearly impervious to tornados? (Obviously that would have to exclude 120mph straight line winds!)

[Ang]

Just wanted to make sure that I didn't come off as reveling in the plight of others. The non linear damage would almost seem to indicate that the tornado skipped across the landscape. Have you ever heard the theory that because Michigan City sits between the lake and the Valpo moraine that we are nearly impervious to tornados? (Obviously that would have to exclude 120mph straight line winds!)

I've heard that. I first heard it when I was little and a bunch of tornados came through the area but didn't hit MC itself. My grandpa said there would never be a tornado in MC because of the same thing stumper said. I've heard it again over the years, but besides my grandpa being the wisest man in the world I have no poof if it's true and what that actually means has never been explained to me. Just what is a valpo moraine anyway?

[Max Main]

Moraines are the hills left by the glaciers. Northern Hoosierland is mostly all moraines; compare this part of the state with the hills south of Bloomington.

Maybe not 'hills.' Maybe it would be more accurate to say Rolling hills.

I think that MC has had tornadoes or events that nearly were tornadoes. While I am sure the proximity of the lake does affect this because of the difference in air mass temps over the lake vs over the land, I don't think it eliminates the possibility.


Ps: to stumper: No one thought you were reveling in others' pllight.

[Ang]

Thanks for clearing that up for me. So, on the road to South Bend, just past Rolling Prairie, those are moraines?
It's funny because after living in the mountains for two years I just think of Indiana as flat. So flat. When I came home for the Superbowl, all I saw was cars, concrete and flat. My memory just can't imagine any hills, or rolling hills--just flat

[Southsider2k12]

http://www.michigancityin.com/articles/200.../news/news1.txt

BREAKING NEWS: Strong weather pounds area

A funnel cloud descends over Pine Street in Michigan City in this photo taken by David Landau.

A line of strong thunderstorms with heavy rain and damaging winds struck Michigan City around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.

A tornado warning was issued after rotating clouds were observed in the area, and local resident David Landau witnessed the storm front strike and took this remarkable photo just after he arrived home.

“I had just pulled up and parked, and I saw the sky and it was green, so I grabbed my camera and started shooting pictures,” said Landau, operator of the Black Tie Optional bed and breakfast on Pine Street.

Landau shot a series of photos showing the funnel cloud form and descend from the line of clouds that swept over Michigan City.

There were no immediate reports of a tornado touching down in the city during the storm, but reports of storm damage and threatening clouds were coming in Tuesday from around LaPorte County, including Westville, LaPorte and the Rolling Prairie area.

Look for full details in Wednesday morning's News-Dispatch.

[Ang]

You guys need to send Dorothy back to Kansas. You made our news again with your crazy tornados. I hope everyone is okay and no one suffered any damage.