May 15, 2007 11:19 pm US/Central
1 Dead After Severe Storm In Northwest Indiana
Powerful Rain And Winds Knock Down Trees And Light Poles
CBS 2 Northwest Indiana Bureau Chief Pamela Jones and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. (CBS) ―
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A powerful storm ripped this tree out of the ground on Tuesday, nearly knocking it into Dawn Krajci's home in Crown Point, Ind.
CBS
Some intense storms moved through the Chicago area Tuesday afternoon, including possible tornado sightings in the southwest suburbs and northwest Indiana.
As CBS 2 Northwest Indiana Bureau Chief Pamela Jones reports, the danger was over by Tuesday night, but the damage from the powerful winds is done. It was confirmed Tuesday evening that a tornado touched down in LaPorte, Ind.
You could see it in the leaning trees and hear it in the air. At around 2:30 Tuesday afternoon a storm packing high winds tore through northwest Indiana.
Witnesses say the storm ripped part of the roof off a preschool in Cedar Lake.
"Something hit the top of the building and it lifted the back of the roof up, and a lot of water came down in there and we went in there and checked it out," said head preschool teacher Jennifer Moes. And there's quite a bit of water damage."
She was supposed to be inside Grand Tots Day Care at the time, but she was at another school location, blocks away, where the storm seemed to tug at everything.
"The ceiling tiles were all blowing everywhere," Moes said. "And we were rushed down to the boiler room and we were stuck there all afternoon."
Just down the road the wind snapped utility poles and slung power lines onto the street.
"We had a massive storm come through," said Cedar Lake Fire Chief Todd Wilkening. "That's all we know of as of right now."
The grounds at St Elijah Serbian Church are normally pristine, but a snapped tree and a fallen light post were evidence that a powerful thunderstorm swept over the property.
The worst part of the storm pushed through northwest Indiana in just a few minutes. A CBS 2 news crew was there when the Krajci family from Crown Point found the storm had ripped a huge tree right out of the ground.
They'd just bought this house a few days ago, ironically as a fixer-upper to sell. The tree fell within inches of the home.
Homeowner Dawn Krajci said, "I can't believe it didn't hit the house the way it fell. It's incredible, it's just, I mean, we were lucky."
But in Portage, the driver of a pickup wasn't so lucky. He died when a falling tree crushed him – a sign of the danger storms like this carry.
That driver had license plates from outside the CBS 2 viewing area. Emergency officials say residents of northwest Indiana are lucky the destruction wasn't worse, and that's partly because people obeyed the tornado sirens warning them to take cover.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
SLIDESHOW: See The Storm's Damage
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