It seemed to start and stop all through the night also. When I got up on Sunday morning and turned on the television news, I was shocked to hear that Beech Grove had been hit by very heavy rain and wind. Thoughts that it was even a tornado were confirmed later Sunday as an EF-1 tornado of 100 miles per hour by the National Weather Service.
That brought back many memories of the 2002 tornado that really messed up things in our neighborhood and several other places on the Southside. We were very lucky. We had tree damage but very little else. Plus, no one was injured.
As the reports continued through Sunday morning, I understood that quite a bit of damage happened to Beech Grove High School and Beech Meadow apartments. I learned that the community center was open to assist anyone.
Stuart (our therapy dog) and I got ready and soon we were on our way to Beech Grove. We pulled into the parking lot at the Hornet Park Community Center. Looking around, there was lots of debris and downed trees to be cleaned up and repairs to be made at the apartments across the street.
We walked up to the center and the first person that we encountered was Beech Grove Mayor Dennis Buckley. We watched as he finished an interview and then had an opportunity to visit with him for a short while. He told me of the different areas that were damaged, but there were no known injuries. It was good to see the mayor out checking on everyone.
Stuart and I then went into the center and talked with Angel Calvert-McKenna. She works at the community center and is a Beech Grove resident. She was there with a lady from the Red Cross and they directed Stuart and me to a family that had spent the night at the community center.
The family seemed happy to visit with Stuart for a while. I told them a couple of Stuart stories and the younger kids really enjoyed petting him. Stuart was in full-therapy mode the entire time.
Later we drove around to the back side of the high school. I saw damage to electrical wires and destroyed trees, but the school bus fleet looked fine. Although, I was looking at that fleet from a distance because of downed electrical wires blocking our path.
We then drove around the city for a while. Downtown looked good. When we traveled south on 9th Street, we saw lots of activity near the South Grove Intermediate School. More trees were down and lots of power and light repair trucks were in the neighborhood, especially on nearby Elm Street.
In all the areas that damage was done to apartments or houses, we noticed that the Red Cross was there to provide aid.
It was great to see the Beech Grove community coming together so quickly to assist anyone in need. Stuart and I will probably stop by a few times in the next week or so to see everyone.
I think we have had enough rain for a while...!!