Many northwest Indiana homeowners were dealing with the aftermath of mother nature Friday after powerful storms struck the area, bringing wind gusts of up to 75 miles per hour.
Torrona Tillman, a Merrillville resident, said she and her husband, Larry, were sitting at their home in the evening hours, watching television, when they heard a big rumble.
"...Sounded like something was attacking our house. We ran into the bedroom, we waited and came out within a few minutes, our roof was gone," Tillman said.
The Tillmans live along 76th Avenue in the Madison Meadows community, one of the neighborhoods hit hardest by the severe storms.
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"It sounded like a freight train coming, running through," Larry Tillman said. "We heard a loud boom, it ripped it, and that was it - we didn’t know what it was."
Strong winds ripped off roofs to multiple homes across the area and knocked down trees and power lines.
"I heard the wind, I saw things go by the front window, so I jumped up, looked out my bedroom window, and that’s when I saw a big wall of wind come by, and I just ran for the bathrooms and dived in there," said another resident, Patricia Yelkich.
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Yelkhich says the storms were so strong, her house shook.
"I have a lot of roof damage, I lost two large evergreen trees, pulled up literal debris. Of course, we don’t have power, we don’t have gas," she said.
NIPSCO crews spent Saturday morning and afternoon trying to restore power to thousands across northern Indiana. As of 3:56 p.m., around 5,400 customers remained without electricity.
In Merrillville, crews worked around the clock to clear and remove debris, as well as reopen streets.
As they deal with the aftermath, neighbors are banding together as a community and moving forward.
"It's just devastating for people who are worse off than I am, across the ways," Yelkich said. "We're just lucky."
