Last Updated 2 weeks by Amnon J. Jobi | Amnon Front Page
GREENWOOD, Ind. (Daily Journal) — Twenty residents were displaced after part of the roof of Greenwood Village South was ripped off amid a tornado warning late Wednesday evening.
The Greenwood Fire Department was called out at 10:42 p.m. for a building collapse with entrapment. Upon arrival, crews found that the building had not collapsed completely, but a portion of the roof had ripped off, which collapsed the ceilings of several units and exposed them to heavy rain, said Tyler Swardson, GFD’s public information officer.
Crews searched the building, but did not find any person who was trapped. There were no injuries reported, Swardson said.
About 25 Greenwood Village staff members came into work to help impacted residents get out of the building and settle into another area of campus that night, said Jordan Morrow, the facility’s executive director.
“I would say by 1, 1:15 a.m. at the latest, we had everybody relocated in our own community with [their] personal belongings, and kind of tucked in and good for the night,” Morrow said. “And then we continued to work throughout the night, and obviously it continues today and will for several days and probably a couple weeks in total.”
Morrow found out the facility was hit shortly after the storm passed over his own house. He and staff members from all over the county rushed to help residents after the storm hit.
“It’s one of those instances where you take what could be a catastrophe, and you see the response of the surrounding community and the response of the residents that live here are impacted, and then the response of the team that supports those residents. And honestly, it’s turned into a really neat thing.”
The high winds peeled up the roofing membrane in an area of about 5,000 square feet in the northwest corner of the largest independent living apartment complex on the campus, Morrow said. A dozen units were damaged to some degree, which displaced 20 residents, he said.
Most units sustained only water damage, and those residents are expected to return home by the end of the week. However, residents who live in the units where the ceiling collapsed will be displaced for around two weeks, he said.
Pieces of roofing were strewn on the lawn next to the building and draped over a magnolia tree next to it. Contractors were already on site Thursday morning cleaning up the damage and preparing to start rebuilding.
At the time the roof ripped, rain was pouring very heavily in Greenwood and there was a tornado warning in effect. High winds caused the roof to come off, but no tornado materialized in Greenwood. The warning was issued by the National Weather Service based on radar-indicated rotation, said Stephanie Sichting, director of the Johnson County Emergency Management Agency.
Weather forecasters detected the rotation near the Johnson and Marion County line near Franciscan Health Indianapolis and Interstate 65. There were some reports of debris after the clouds containing rotation were past the county line, but no other major damage was reported aside from Greenwood Village South, Sichting said.
Other damage
Several people in local Facebook groups reported flash flooding on roads in northern Johnson County. Sichting said the flooding was temporary and she isn’t aware of any roads that are still flooded as of Thursday morning.
In heavy rain and high wind conditions like what occurred Wednesday night, people should drive slowly so they can be prepared to avoid high water, Sichting said. Flash flooding occurs and recedes quickly, so officials aren’t able to warn the public of this danger in real time.
Fry Road was closed for a short time after a tree fell into the roadway, but the Greenwood Department of Public Works has cleaned that up, Sichting said. Elsewhere in the county, there were no other reports of major damage, she said.
For GFD, the only other major event Wednesday night was providing mutual aid for a fire in Indianapolis, Swordson said.
“We got lucky, it went just north of it this time,” Sichting said.
Tornadoes were reported in Carmel and Brownsburg, and severe storm damage was reported in areas of Indianapolis and Hancock County. A warehouse collapsed in Brownsburg, and three people were rescued from it. There are also reports of damage to businesses in downtown Carmel, the Daily Journal’s newsgathering partner WISH-TV reports.
There is one reported casualty so far. In Hendricks County, a Danville man passed away after running his truck over and then touching downed power lines, WISH-TV reports.
Siren problem?
Several people in Greenwood reported on social media that they got notifications about the tornado warning on their cell phones before the sirens sounded. Sichting said that’s normal. Johnson County 911 activates the sirens after NWS issues the warning, and it takes a few minutes to unlock the siren controls and then activate them, she said.
EMA and 911 staff get the notification simultaneously with everyone else in the county when NWS issues the alert. Because of that, there will always be a delay of some degree, she said.
Seconds count when a warning is issued, so Sichting encourages people to have a way to get severe weather alerts beyond listening for the siren. Some recommended ways to get weather alerts are downloading weather apps on a smartphone and enabling notifications, or purchasing a weather radio.
Additionally, while there are many sirens in Johnson County, they do not reach all areas and are meant to alert people who are outdoors to take cover. Rural residents may not hear them at all, and people in urban areas who don’t live close to a siren likely won’t hear them indoors.
Sirens sound all over Johnson County when a tornado warning is issued, regardless of whether there is a warning for the whole county. Last night, for example, rotation was detected over northern Greenwood, but sirens were heard all over the county.
Sirens are only activated for a tornado warning.
This article originally appeared in the Daily Journal.