PORTER COUNTY, Ind. -- Residents in Porter County are continuing to recover after a powerful EF-3 tornado tore through northwestern Indiana on Thursday evening, leaving homes heavily damaged, neighborhoods without power and families displaced.
The National Weather Service confirmed Friday that the tornado that struck the area reached EF-3 strength, with peak winds estimated at 165 mph.
For Kouts resident Kat Riley, who took shelter in her home in Kouts, the storm's arrival was haunting.
"The house started shaking, my ears popped a dozen or more times, and then the house was making these horrible graining noises," Riley said. "My immediate next-door neighbor… they had to be pulled out by the fire department."
Several homes in Riley's neighborhood sustained severe damage. She described some of the properties as unlivable. Her home sustained damage to the roof, along with debris stuck in exterior walls from the force of the wind.
Despite the destruction, no fatalities were reported.
"That's the best outcome that we could have possibly asked for," said Natalie Kreider, co-founder of the Twisted Fate Vortex Team and a volunteer with Team Dominator Storm Recovery.
While many residents sought shelter, Kreider and her husband were tracking the storm as it developed.
"We watched it form. We were able to pick the right road to be on as it crossed in front of us," Kreider said. "People that lived on that street took shelter because they saw us and we were talking to them, and we were able to help them safely take shelter before sirens or warnings had even gone off. Then we relayed that information to the National Weather Service."
Kreider, who grew up in Springfield, Missouri — about an hour North of Joplin.
In 2011, an EF-5 tornado struck Joplin. The Joplin tornado is one of the deadliest tornadoes to occur in the United States, with 158 associated deaths.
Experiencing the aftermath of that storm is one of her reasons for volunteering with Team Dominator Storm Recovery.
"We started collecting donations in Wheatfield," Kreider said. "We've been going out to deliver supplies to those that were affected, hands-on helping with cleanup, tree debris, anything that we could."
Team Dominator Storm Recovery has 120 active volunteers and runs out of pocket.