Downed trees and torn roofs after heavy winds hit Michiana

 

WALKERTON & KNOX, Ind.-- People are still picking up the pieces after storms and heavy winds rolled through Michiana Monday night.

At Kraft Auction Service in Walkerton, off East U.S. 6, the roof to one of the warehouses was blown clean off, leaving a mangled pile of metal on the ground.

"It just took it like a can lid and just opened up that roof," said Jonathan Kraft, owner of Kraft Auction Service.

The wind was so strong, it also knocked over the shipping containers out front.

"They weigh 9,330 pounds," Kraft said, "so it took a good wind to pick that up and flip it."

As you travel southwest, you can see flooded fields.

In Knox at Sandy Acres Park, you can see plenty of uprooted and downed trees.

Marilyn Ringen lives next to the park at Oak Valley Place. Her unit was blanketed in brush, with large tree branches blocking her front door.

"It made a very, very loud noise," she said, "I thought for sure it was coming into my apartment."

Her unit is fine, but her next-door neighbors were not so lucky. A gaping hole was left in Patricia Ekart's living room ceiling.

"I hear stuff hitting the window and I grab my dog and I ran in the shower," Ekart said. "You could hear the crashing, and I thought it was going to come through the ceiling for sure, which it did in the living room."

As the sun shines, drying up what's left from the storm, people pick up the pieces.

"I never had time to get scared," Ekart said. "Just, like, 'what am I going to do now?'"

"A roof can be replaced, a fence can be fixed, and we'll go back to work and keep going," Kraft said. "That's all you can do, right?"