Nappannee, North Indiana Residents Clean Up after Tornado

Residents of Nappanee and northern Indiana continued this past weekend to clean up after a tornado damaged several hundred homes and businesses in Elkhart and Kosciusko counties.

According to today’s South Bend Tribune, an estimated crowd of 5,000 volunteers were in Nappanee Sunday morning. Fire officials started turning people away at 10:30 a.m. Even as late as 1:30 p.m., when the efficient volunteer work was being completed, people were still driving up, asking where they could go to help. Lines of people, four and five across, stretched for 300 yards, all waiting to get on buses at North Wood High School Sunday.

“The whole town was impacted and a fairly major section of town was hit,” noted the Rev. Ruben Chupp of the North Main Street Mennonite Church.

City workers, along with utility crews, residents, business people and volunteers, began cleaning up Friday from the twister – estimated to have winds of up to 165 mph – that struck Thursday night. The twister damaged or destroyed an estimated 250 homes and businesses. Five people suffered minor injuries. Press reports estimate damages of $10 to 25 million in Elkhart County and $2.7 in neighboring Kosciusko County.

United Methodist Michiana District Superintendent Robert Dexter plan to request funds of the United Methodist Committee on Relief for disaster relief in the Nappanee. North Indiana Conference Disaster Response Coordinator Gary Peterson is monitoring the situation. He is in contact with Dexter and Nappanee UMC Pastor David Harold. – Disaster News Network, South Bend Tribune, Gary Peterson

For full story, log on to http://www.disasternews.net/news/article.php?articleid=3480 and http://www.sbtinfo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071022/News01/710220336/1129/News