Elkhart County Emergency Management starts recovery process after tornadoes and prepares for more possible severe weather
ELKHART COUNTY, Ind. — Many families are still stuck without power four days after the tornados touched down.
NIPSCO confirms some of its customers in Northern Indiana won't be back online until this Wednesday night at midnight, nearly a week after the storms ripped through. ABC57 has been tracking these outages all day. Thankfully, many of the people we checked on today say their power has been restored.
Now the focus shifts to recovery efforts, while also preparing for this week's potentially powerful thunderstorms.
For Jennifer Tobey, Elkhart County Emergency Management's Executive Director, the past few days since the tornadoes hit haven't slowed down.
"We have eight destroyed homes that I know of. We have 19 majorly affected homes that I know of and that’s what I’m trying to get my arms around now is who’s out there that has trees through the roof or trees through the wall of the house. Once I get those numbers and can get those to the state, then doors open for other opportunities," Tobey explained.
With damaged homes across the County, Tobey can't promise things will be the same as before the tornado hit.
"We’re never going to get back to normal, but we try to get people back to that new normal as soon as possible. How your house looked before the storm may not be exactly how your house looks after the storm but my goal is that you have a house that you feel safe in, that you can be cool in the summer and warm in the winter and have food and have family dinners again at the kitchen table and not have to worry. So, that’s what we’re looking at, the new normal"
She says in order to help with the recovery process, she needs people to call in.
"Right now, it’s just that data collection. Once we’re completely in the recovery then things pick up again but right now, I’ve got teams out there, boots on the ground just going door-to-door and looking at who has what.”
NIPSCO and Indiana Michigan Power have been working around the clock just Like Elkhart County EMA to get people's power back on. Now, the focus shifts to the upcoming possible severe weather.
"I've been telling the patrons that have been calling us that we’re not trying to stop the recovery. Take pictures, contact your insurance company, tarp your roof. Let us know of any immediate safety issues that we can get first responders out there to help with and we’ll try to prepare everybody the best we can prior to storms. I can’t stop them. I can’t control them, but we can be as proactive and as reactive as necessary to try to get them through that and then continue to work to get them to that new normal," said Tobey.
With the power out for days, many people had to throw out their food in their fridge and freezers. Elkhart County EMA along with other agencies are partnering to provide food for people across the County, whether that be pick up or delivery.
"We know now that there are people that might be on fixed income or have limited ability to get money and lost all their food. Again, I need them to contact their insurance company, but I also need them to contact me to let me know they need food. These groups will do food drops. There are places that the residents can go, but there’s also people that I can get to bring it to them, so we do have food available. We have numerous groups that are working through The Community Foundation, through Nobody Goes Hungry in Elkhart County and if food is a concern, to me, that’s just like damage. I need to know it so report it.”
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