Immediately they mobilized.
Neighbors, nonprofits and business owners worked alongside school officials and public safety agencies in the immediate aftermath of the storm to bring relief to its victims.
Within the hour after two separate tornadoes and storms ripped Whiteland, Franklin and Bargersville late Friday the gravity of the situation started to materialize.
In Whiteland, homes were flattened, public buildings heavily damaged and newly-constructed warehouses were ripped apart. In Franklin and Bargersville, trees were downed, shingles ripped off and power poles were damaged. The Johnson County Courthouse’s clock tower was also damaged.
In hardest-hit Whiteland, emergency shelter was set up right away at Whiteland Community High School and later moved to Greenwood Middle School when the high school lost power and water. Between 10 and 20 homes were left uninhabitable, and at least 20 people were left without shelter after their home was destroyed, Whiteland Fire Chief Eric Funkhouser said Saturday.
That night, Johnson County Emergency Management Agency, public safety agencies from across the county and public safety from Marion and Bartholomew counties, worked together to methodically take stock of the damage and put resources where they are most needed. Though there was some damage in southern Johnson County, central parts of the county, particularly Whiteland, saw the brunt of the damage.
Despite all the destruction, no lives were lost and no injuries required transport to the hospital, Funkhouser said.
Picking up the pieces in Park Forest
In the Park Forest neighborhood in Whiteland, roofs were torn off and brick walls had crumbled to the ground.
Dan Scales lives where Park Forest Drive North meets Park Forest Drive East, a spot where some of the most serious damage in Whiteland occurred. Much of the roof of his house was torn off and his garage collapsed on the two cars parked inside it. Scales said he’s still in shock and feels lucky he and his wife are still alive.
They first sought refuge in a closet, then moved to a bathroom, then a bedroom as their home collapsed around them.
“We were in the closet and the ceiling started looking bad. Then, we went to the bathroom and that started looking bad so we went to the far end of the house,” Scales said. “Everything just exploded. I’m in shock, just trying to contact people who know what to do. I’ll stay with my son or some friends.”
Judy Gutermuth, who lives a few houses down in the 200 block of Park Forest North, had her windows smashed in and a ceiling fan dislodged but was spared some of the destruction her neighbor’s homes faced. Gutermuth spent much of the morning cleaning up glass, she said.
“I was in bed trying to watch my show and the news came on with the weather report. They talked about Sullivan (County) and all of a sudden it switched to Franklin and how the Franklin area might want to get ready,” Gutermuth said. “I got my stuff and went to the basement.”
Gutermuth said she’s grateful for people in the community, who have helped by donating supplies and cleaning debris. One of those people was Kelly Adkins, who lives across Sawmill Road from the Park Forest neighborhood.
“We had no damage but our power went out and we still don’t have power or water,” Gutermuth said. “Most people I know are over here (in Park Forest). Judy is a friend of ours and we went to help with the debris cleanup.”
Surviving in Spring Hill
Whiteland resident Kimberly Quakenbush was following the weather on the news when she heard the instructions to take cover. Her house sits along a section of West Street south of Whiteland Road in the Spring Hill subdivision.
She and her adult son hunkered down in the hallway of their home, and heard the storm path tear through past their house.
“It was loud, like a freight train. Very loud. And then it was like, boom, all the windows got blown out at the same time,” she said. “Very scary. Very scary.”
All the windows on the front side of her house busted, and so did most of the windows in her car parked in her driveway.
Tears welled up in Quakenbush’s eyes as she recalled sitting through the storm and her initial assessment of the damage. She was grateful she and her son, Jason are uninjured.
“I’ve never been hit by a tornado. I’ve seen tornadoes and funnel clouds and strong winds up to 70 in some different states and stuff,” she said. “This has got to be the scariest.”
Nick Foster was at his home on West Street with his wife and 10-year-old son when the storm came through. At first, he wanted to watch from the porch, he said, but then he realized the gravity of the situation.
He and his family, including three cats and a dog, went to hunker down in the tub of their bathroom, when they heard their roof rip off.
“My wife, she grabbed my 10-year-old and they went in the bathroom to get in the tub. And by the time I got down the hallway, I was pushing the door shut and everything fell apart,” Foster said. “It’s like our roof has been lifted up off the top and sat back down.”
Just before 2 a.m., he was outside assessing damage and talking to neighbors to make sure they were OK. He was also trying to find a way to get out of the neighborhood to go stay at a family member’s house. They lost their back door and had no way to keep their pets inside the house, he said.
“I’m also not sure if the house is structurally safe,” Foster said.
Kevin Morphew was sitting in his house watching the storm through his window late Friday night. He thought it would be just like any storm.
Then, the power went out, and he heard wind that sounded like a freight train.
“I hit the floor. And as soon as I hit the floor, everything crashed and debris hit me. There was stuff all around my house,” he said.
Morphew’s house was in the path of the storm that ripped through a section of houses on West Street in Spring Hill.
A tree was knocked over onto his house, and Morphew saw some of his walls shift.
Morphew was outside of his house with a friend Saturday afternoon, hours after the storm path came through Whiteland around midnight the night before.
He cleaned up what debris he could, and assessed the damage to his house.
Morphew wasn’t sure where he was going to stay for the time being, since his house was damaged and he had no power or water.
“I want to stay here. I don’t want to leave my place. Because, you know, it’s home,” Morphew said.
Throughout the affected areas of the Spring Hill subdivision on Saturday afternoon, people were helping out where they could. Many roofing companies were already fixing damaged houses. Some homeowners were out picking up debris and assessing the damage of their neighborhood.
People walked through the streets, examining the houses, some missing portions of roofs, some with shattered windows and some without front doors. Two girls walked around the subdivision handing out Jack’s Donuts to people around.
Giving back at GMS
Greenwood Schools Superintendent Terry Terhune got a call from the Red Cross at around 2:30 a.m. with a request to prepare Greenwood Middle School to host about 20 people who had been left without shelter. The original shelter, Whiteland Community High School, was without power and water.
“Of course, we said ‘yes, we’d like to help,’” Terhune said. “Five of our maintenance men and our custodial staff just kind of started prepping the building and then opened the doors, working with the Red Cross and kind of just helping them however they needed.”
That included room for people to sleep in the auxiliary gym and making sure the restrooms were ready. People sleeping in the school were also provided with water and food, and fast food chains Chick-Fil-A and Mcdonald’s donated food, he said.
“The community support has been overwhelming. We’ve had tons and tons of community members dropping off water, food,” Terhune said. “I’m just really, really happy about the support that’s been given.”
School district officials were still evaluating whether there was a need to continue offering shelter on Monday at press time.
Help pours in for survivors
Kyran and Amanda Samuels traveled from their home in the Heritage neighborhood in Franklin to donate water and canned goods. The morning after they faced the fear of having their home destroyed in the storm, they came out unscathed but wanted to help people who were not so fortunate.
“I was so scared last night, like that’s the first time I’ve actually been in true fear, hearing a tornado touch down. We were all gathered in the pantry,” Amanda Samuels said. “Just to see it hit so close to home. That could have been us and I would want help. So that’s why we’re out here trying to help people because I would want them to do the same thing for me.”
Just getting to GMS was a struggle. Once the couple reached the Clark Pleasant neighborhood, they had to drive through several neighborhoods before rejoining the road.
“We had to go through neighborhoods and just kind of navigate on Google Maps and even load our phones that weren’t even loading,” Amanda Samuels said.
“We drove past some houses in a neighborhood that was almost flattened just to get through,” Kyran Samuels said.
Another couple, Shelby Rogers and Kyle Wakefield, also traveled to help from Franklin. Their home was also spared.
Wakefield and Rogers brought a 40-pack of water, baby formula and chips. With the donation, the couple hopes they can get help to people who need it the most, Wakefield said.
“Hopefully it just gets people back on their feet as quickly as possible and it helps people through at least the next couple of days,” he said.
Rogers has a personal connection to Whiteland.
“I graduated from Whiteland (High School) so that’s about the only hometown I’ve got,” she said.
Members of Johnson County Senior Services and Chick-Fil-A spent the day together traveling to neighborhoods and distributing food and supplies to people in need. The day started at 6 a.m., when they went to the shelter set up at GMS, said Kimberly Smith, executive director of Johnson County Senior Services.
“We have food, we have hats, gloves. The wind is unbearable for folks working in it. We’re trying to find out if seniors have any kind of needs. We have medical equipment, incontinence items, personal items for them as well,” she said. “We hope to positively impact the life of whoever God puts in our path; it’s that simple.”
As power began to return to some homes in affected areas around the county on Saturday and Sunday, some residents with power posted on social media offering to open their homes to anyone who needed access to electricity or a hot meal. One resident on social media offered to house any pets who need power, such as reptiles that need heat lamps. The Johnson County Animal Shelter also offered assistance to any affected residents who needed help for their pets.
Local business Beeson Mechanical Services in Whiteland opened two public generators for outside to charge electronics, and the company made room in their fridges for anyone who needed to refrigerate medications during the outage.
New Whiteland neighbors step up
The New Whiteland Fire Department became a place for food, water and blankets to be donated.
With New Whiteland spared much of the physical impact of the storm. The New Whiteland Fire Department helped take stock of the damage and helped in Whiteland, where they were joined by firefighters from the Whiteland, Greenwood, Franklin, Bargersville, White River and Edinburgh departments, said David Curin, New Whiteland Fire Chief. With heavy damage to Whiteland’s fire station, New Whiteland is offering a temporary home base to Whiteland’s engine crew and administrative staff until their station is back up and running, Funkhouser said.
“We’ve been going door to door, checking on citizens, making sure they’re safe and checking for any damage,” Curin said Saturday. “We want to make sure (supplies) get out to people who need it. At this point, we’re in the beginning phases of making sure the situation is mitigated, then we’ll get the word out about volunteering.”
With plenty of supplies at the station at 500 Sweetbriar Ave. anyone in need of food, water or warmth can find it at the station, David Wampler, firefighter and chaplain said Saturday.
“We’re making sure we can help in any way we can,” Wampler said.
John Merrill, the owner of Merrill Property Group in Greenwood, helped deliver two pallets of water, blankets and snacks, bringing along his son-in-law, Brett Melcalf.
“We’re a commercial real estate firm and we do business in Whiteland, New Whiteland, Franklin, Greenwood and Bargersville, so we reached out this morning to see what we could do to help,” Merrill said. “Now, we’re getting other businesses involved in helping. It won’t be a challenge, they just gotta know what the need is.”
