Tornado recovery coming to a close

BY MIKE GRANT

TIMES HERALD

It’s been almost eleven months since an F-1 tornado roared through western Daviess County and then ripped through the Sycamore Street corridor in Washington. The storm left a mess in its wake. Now, after months of work and recovery the area is showing very few impacts from the devastating storm. “Our work is almost done,” said Sherry Davis with the Daviess County Long Term Recovery Committee. “We have one more house that needs help and we have a group of volunteers coming in later this month to finish that up.”

“I think they’ve done an excellent job,” added Daviess County Emergency Management Agency Director Paul Goss. “There are some people who have had a loss, but overall I think we have recovered very well.”

While many of the houses were repaired through private insurance a number of other homes were fixed through the LTR group and the efforts of volunteers from many parts of Indiana and neighboring states. “We repaired seven houses,” said Davis. “We have had great groups come in from Madison, Lafayette, Pendleton and Dayton, Ohio. Harvest Ministries was so good to put them up and then the community donated the money that paid for the materials.”

For some of the families the past several months have been full of frustration as they waited patiently for the repairs to be done. “We finished one house last week that the family had been

>> See TORNADO/ / Page A2

JEAN LOCKWOOD, Dan Burden, Dan Seela, Steve and Cindy Miller were part of the Miami Disaster Relief Team which was in town from Monday to Friday last week to help with tornado recovery efforts.

Photo provided

JEAN LOCKWOOD, of Dayton, Ohio, paints as part of the Miami Valley Disaster Relief team which worked on the tornado relief effort.

Photo provided

<< CONTINUED from Page A1

unable to live in since the tornado,” said Davis. “It needed new roof and ceilings, siding, plumbing and the interior, but they got it done. I think the family is really excited to get back in there.”

Because the repairs leaned heavily on the efforts of volunteers the work might not have moved as quickly as some people might have liked, but most of it is done. “When you rely on volunteers you really work on their schedule,” said Davis. “We worked hard to try and get things done. We even had a local volunteer group come in that did some roofing work that others would not do.”

The Daviess County recovery was done without help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the Indiana Emergency Management Agency. Requests for state and federal disaster declarations were turned down twice. “It would have been easier with a federal declaration,” said Goss. “There would have been more money come in and more people probably could have been helped more quickly.”

“ With no FEMA money we had to take a wholly different approach,” added Daviess. “I believe there were two families that qualified for the low interest Small Business Administration loans. Other than that it was community donations and volunteers that helped put the area back together.”

SBA has issued a reminder that businesses and non-profits can still apply for loans. The deadline is Nov. 5. “I think all of the people that qualified for help through SBA met with them when they were in town and have received their help,” said Goss.

The Long Term Recovery Committee is also placing a deadline for people to request their help. “I think we have reached out to everyone,” said Davis. “If anyone else needs help recovering from the tornado they need to contact us through Connections before the end of the month.”

In the days following the tornado the Sycamore Street area was filled with downed trees, damaged and destroyed buildings with debris spread everywhere. Now that area looks much different. “It’s amazing how different it looks,” said Davis. “A couple of the rentals that were badly damaged have been torn down. There rest of have been fixed.”

“Some people have new homes, others have better homes than they had last year,” added Goss. “The living conditions have really improved in that neighborhood.”