Been through nothing like this. That's the worst thing I've ever been through in my life. I mean, it took less than a minute to do this damage and by the grace of God, everyone has lived through it all. Now, at four lives turned upside down communities shredded to pieces after tornadoes ripped through Indiana. We're live from the massive recovery effort as experts sift through the debris, figuring out the force of the system that caused so much damage live from. You're watching 13 news just staggering damage in the daylight left behind after at least one tornado touched down in Delaware in Randolph County. Such difficult images here and take a look at this video out of Winchester, capturing the funnel cloud on camera and breaking. Just in the last hour. The national weather service shared a preliminary report that this tornado reached ef three strength. We are talking dozens of people injured, homes, flattened businesses destroyed, but thankfully right now, no loss of life. We have live team coverage across Winchester and Selma this afternoon and we're gonna start with the newest member of the 13 weather team Matt Stand. He actually helped track the storm all night. And Matt, you've got more info about that Winchester tornado strength fill us in. All right, we're live out here in Winchester. I tell you what, we've been having some self service problems because some towers were knocked out and coverage is spotty here. But we're on the south side of Winchester where we had that ef three tornado. So those are wind speeds estimated between 136 to 165 MPH. And as the National weather service has been making their way from west to east. This Winchester Church of Christ is one of the reasons that they were able to make that call on the EF three status. If you notice this is a brick building. So this is a very sturdy building. It's well built. If we had an EF four tornado, it would have completely knocked all the walls down. If it was an EF five, you wouldn't even see the building, it would just be leveled off its foundation. So this is what EF three damage does. Uh, here in Winchester, it's on the south side, basically took a direct east and west path on the south side and then eventually crossed us 27 towards the Good and towards the Taco Bell. But we actually have seen more damage once you get farther into some of these neighborhoods where it's not necessarily brick homes like this was. In fact, this is some of the debris that we were looking at in the radar beam, Angela and Sean were tracking it last night. We were seeing some of these bricks and other objects flying in that radar beam and that's how we were able to confirm that there was something touching on the ground. But I do have one piece of good news. So earlier, we were talking with one of the church goers here at Winchester Church of Christ and she was going through the some of the damage, she actually found the sign and was able to put that sign back in front. So we could tell where we were even looking. But she says she's been going here for years. Her parents have been going here for years and her father who has passed away now had a memorial bench on the inside and she was able to find that memorial bench were able to get it outside. It basically is untouched. So some piece of good news. And as you guys know, we don't have any fatalities here in Winchester, but here at the church, they all called each other. Everyone's doing ok. But just as honestly see what that EF three tornado did. Now coming up, we're going to get away from here at the church building and take you into some of the residential neighborhoods to show you what EF three damage did here on the south side of Winchester. We'll have that for you. Coming up live in Winchester 13 news, meteorologist Matt and back to you. All right. That's Matt there again. The newest member of our 13 weather team Matt. We will check back in. I know you're on the scene, uh, working it. We'll check back in with you. Emergency agencies are on the ground in full force right now. State police, homeland Security task force. One cross all of these agencies working together to help any way they can. Yeah. So many people because there's so much damage to get through. So let's get out to our rich nigh and rich. These communities actually asking people from other cities to stay away right now and let the pros do what they do best. Right. And all those pros are here in Winchester right now. We're seeing power crews busy. We're getting those utility poles put back up and we're told that they hope to have everyone in Winchester back on with power by tonight, by 10 o'clock tonight. Behind me, you see the strip mall. This is part of a big retail area as you come into Winchester on us, highway 27. On the southeast side of Winchester. You come to this retail area where the Walmart and the strip mall, almost all the stores there are completely destroyed, the roof torn off that strip mall. But what you've probably heard the most about, about this Winchester Storm is the Taco Bell and that's right here. That used to be a Taco Bell and there were people there last night working and eating and getting their food. They got into the freezer, the cooler that is for protection. When that storm hit last night, Andrew Day was one of those people who was working at the Taco Bell. And he tells us his experience going through that storm. I went in to walk in and then turned around and grab the door like this and then you can feel the building start shaking. Then it just the that door right there that walk in door blew me back about 15 ft into those racks and, and you just had to hold on from there, picked us up, slammed us down. It, it was pretty wild. I'm looking at it now, I'm looking back. I keep replanning my mind. It's like, wow, well, for sure, you got the look from overhead from Joan Camp 13. You see the damage here and Andrew Day, his car, his SUV was turned upside down. That's his car, the white one upside down outside the Taco Bell. Uh, he says he's lucky that there were not serious injuries. He did tell us that one of his managers at the store did suffer injuries. We don't have an update on her condition tonight but again, the story here, 38 people injured, but there were no fatalities in Winchester. 22 homes at least were flattened and more than 100 were damaged. We're gonna be heading to one of those neighborhoods later tonight at six o'clock. But coming up at five, we're gonna talk to one of the business owners here in that strip mall about what happened to her nail salon, Jenny and, uh, Felicia. Wow, what an incredible survival story rich to be able to see that damage and that know that he survived. My goodness. Thank you Rich. This is rich and I reporting live from Winchester tonight. The damage just astonishing to see as people try to pick up the pieces of their lives going head over to Selma in Delaware County, which also sustained significant damage from last night's severe weather. Yeah, in fact, about half of that town hit hard and now dealing with the aftermath of this disruptive storm. So let's get out to our Lauren kick and Laura Lauren tell us what you're seeing there. J and Felicia, this is the hardest hit area of some we're here on Jackson Street and you can just see crews stretch for blocks down the street trying to help these neighbors. And we know that dozens of homes here on Jackson Street have been damaged, including the one behind me. You can see it back there. It was completely ripped off its foundation and whatever is left is now in their front yard. And we know that from officials, they asked me 50% of the buildings here in Selma were damaged last. But the good news that we are learning this morning is that no one was severely hurt, which is just crazy when you look around at some of these homes that no one was hurt in the storm. And many people told us today that they were actually home when this storm rolled through that they were taking shelter. We spoke with one homeowner, he was looking for his other cat and actually got stuck in the hallway. And it's a good thing he did because the walls and roof of his home were completely blown off except for the area he was in. And today family pitched in to help packing up whatever they could even finding the smallest treasures like a framed photo. It's just devastating. I just feel for everybody that's been in the path and I thank all of these workers because we wouldn't have half of this done if it wasn't for them. I don't even know where it came from. Right. And that's also what the Delaware County Sheriff is saying tonight, we to some of this damage with him earlier. He called the storm personal and one of the worst storms he can remember in his career. And what brings him hope he said are those first responders who are still here tonight helping since the storm hit last night. We also know as these crews are working behind me, a lot of utility workers, people coming, helping clearing some of this damage. Tonight, the Delaware County Emergency management agents is asking people to still avoid this area. One, they want to make sure it is safe for people to come and volunteer. And two, they want to give these workers plenty of room to get this job done for the people in this neighborhood. So as soon as they say that people can volunteer, they say that call will be put out because Jen, so we know this neighborhood in this town is going to need a lot of help getting back on their feet. A lot of devastation in a very short amount of time la cost reporting live from S tonight. Thank you so much. You know, unfortunately, we've been through these a lot, uh, here in Indiana, but we know Hoosiers all pull together, but it's gonna take time to try and clean all of this up. They're gonna need some good weather over the next few days and then, you know, it's very common. We'll go from, you know, pretty mild yesterday, uh to cooler weather. That's one piece of the, uh, forecast puzzle here. So, yeah, it is gonna be quiet. It's just gonna be rather breezy.
