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The Echo
Taylor University, Upland, IN
Thursday, April 25, 2024
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The Echo
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Midwest gets caught up in storms

By Hannah Haney | Echo

A massive storm system of tornadoes, hail and extreme winds swept across the Midwest on Nov. 17. The catastrophic system caused six deaths in Illinois and severe damage across Indiana.

Illinois suffered the most, with an estimated 15 tornadoes hitting that state alone. The Chicago Bears game was delayed two hours, and fans were forced to evacuate the stands at Soldier Field. Washington, Ill., was hit hardest, with 37 injured. Entire neighborhoods were wiped out, according to the Associated Press.

Sophomore Erika Nord lives just 25 minutes from Washington, in Bluffton, Ill.

"There was some hail damage to my house and some of my parents' cars," Nord said. "The hail was 4 (inches across) and (came) 45 (minutes) after the storm had come through. It's just crazy because you always hear about storms happening in places far away from your home and it's scary that one hit so close to home and now I'm the one that's being affected by it."

Indiana was also severely impacted. State governor Mike Pence saidin a statement that an estimated 12 counties in Indiana reported either storm damage or tornadoes. Kokomo had to declare a state of emergency and order all residents to stay indoors until 6 a.m. Monday, according to the Kokomo Tribune.

"Everybody was fine and there were no casualties overall, but seeing pictures of the destruction (in) Kokomo (is) unbelievable," said sophomore Rachel Williams, who lives in Kokomo. "You never expect something like that to happen to your own town."

Media communication program assistant Susan Shanks, who lives in Marion, was also affected.

"The wind hit fast and furiously," Shanks said. "Our apartment itself was not damaged, but we have an attached cover porch and the windows were broken out and a limb had landed on top of the porch. (The Shanks' landlords') barn collapsed, and the debris came toward our apartment. Our Yukon was parked between our apartment and the barn, and the Yukon took all the debris and probably stopped it from going into the porch."

Both the Shanks' cars are severely damaged, but their apartment survived unscathed.

"I've had-I can't even explain it-a peace and a calmness that it's all going to be okay. God provided; we had emergency generators at our house within the hour, friends (and) family came and helped with the debris, so we could at least see the apartment," Shanks said. "I have nothing to complain about. And when the cleanup is finished, I hope I never forget how God chose to protect us."

When the storm hit Taylor, students in the dorms were forced to go to the lowest floor possible to wait out the warning. The tornado warning came during the intermission of Taylor's production of "Kiss Me Kate," forcing the audience to crowd into two lower classrooms for 30 minutes until the warning lifted.

"It was kind of disorienting," said sophomore Kate Jameson, who is in the ensemble for the show. "(It) kind of detracted from the magic of the show and we all felt that we had to work a lot harder during the second act to rebuild the world of the show."

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