Delaware County and state assess Selma tornado damage
County officials say state damage assessment teams visited Selma Monday to help with recovery from Thursday night’s tornado. IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports.
Delaware County’s own damage assessment team says 32 structures in Selma were impacted when the confirmed EF3 tornado came through, including six fully destroyed and 13 with major damage. That doesn’t include hail damage reports coming in separately from Selma and nearby Royerton.
Read More: Tornado causes significant damage in Delaware and Randolph counties
John Coutinho leads the Delaware County Emergency Management Agency. He says tornado sirens sounded at 7:23 PM on Thursday night, two minutes after the warning was issued.
“National Weather Service listed the tornado time as 7:37, so that’s 14 minutes notification. Which is ideal, because the ideal time from FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] is 10-15 minutes, so we’re at the higher end of that. Which, personally, I’m very proud of that, that we were able to watch this system come in and early warn everybody in the area. Which I think helped contribute to the, obviously, the absence of life loss.”
Despite activating sirens as early as possible, Coutinho warns the public to not rely on those sirens as your only way of knowing about a storm warning.
“They do work, but they’re just that – they’re outdoor warning sirens, and we’ve got to remember that. You can’t rely on that in the middle of the night when it’s storming and thundering to hear sirens.”
The Delaware County Commissioners approved an expected disaster declaration for the area, which helps in receiving help and funds from state and federal agencies.
Delaware County’s EMA was able to both send resources to Selma and send extra help to Winchester. The Randolph County convoy included 40 ambulances and two requested buses from MITS to help with evacuations.
Winchester Mayor Bob McCoy says 38 people were injured, three critically. No one died. The damage in Winchester, he said the day after the tornado hit, was extensive.
“Twenty-two homes possibly totally destroyed and 110 badly damaged. Again, very lucky. There were houses that are leveled. Taco Bell – leveled. So, I really praise the Lord for this one, because we could have been – it could have been really bad.”
The Indiana Department of Homeland Security also has a new number for Delaware and Randolph county residents to call to report damage to the state.
In a statement, the agency says, “Residents of Delaware and Randolph counties are asked to call 866-211-9966 to report severe storm damage from March 14, 2024. Cell tower damage in the area caused previous 211 calls to be rerouted incorrectly.”
This story has been updated.
Stephanie Wiechmann is our Managing Editor and “All Things Considered” Host. Contact her at slwiechmann@bsu.edu.
