Seventy-five homes were damaged in the tornado that came through town Friday night.
(Clayton Baumgarth)
When Claire Schaffer opened her front door this morning, she found a blue cooler sitting on her porch. Inside, there was food and beer. She didn’t know who it was from, but she took it inside. About 30 minutes later, she found a red cooler with more food on the porch.
Following the tornado that swept through town Friday night, residents like Schaffer have received overwhelming support from the community. Schaffer lives near Clear Creek, which faced the brunt of the damage with downed trees, around 75 homes damaged and the post office demolished.
Schaffer was at a concert at Bloomington High School South when the tornado hit. Everyone gathered into the orchestra room as she tried to call her dad, who was at home at the time. None of the calls went through. Soon after, she learned about the damage her property had suffered, and that her 96-year-old dad also got injured.
“We were trying not to be reckless and hurrying home and very convoluted route to get here, because of all the trees,” she said. “We finally made it to about five houses from our property. And I told my husband, you figure out how to get home, I'm just going to run home. So, I started running through these fields with all these trees.”
The tornado destroyed her two barns, the front porch of her house and a few windows. Her dad’s apartment, which is on the property, also suffered structural damage. Her dad had an eye injury and some abrasions on his hands.
The apartment that Claire Schaffer's dad lives in on her property suffered extensive structural damage. She doesn't know how long it will take to repair. (Clayton Baumgarth)
“My father's injury, it’s miraculous that he is not injured worse,” she said. “He stepped out to see the four-inch hail from his apartment, and when he did, he looked over and saw the concrete block wall falling down, which is 10 or 20 feet from him, and he hurried to go back inside, and that's when the wind pushed the door on him and he fell. If he hadn't fallen in the door frame, he probably would have been crushed.”
They were able to find her dad’s hearing aid in the rubble. The tornado knocked down numerous trees in her yard, which will remain there for months as they work to clear up the damage. She doesn’t know how much it’ll cost to repair everything either.
“Except for our summer vacation that we already have planned, we'll probably be working on it every day all summer,” she said, “and I won't be surprised if there's work going on in the fall, whether it's rebuilding some things or cleaning up.”
The People and Animal Learning Services’ barn and pastures west of Bloomington also suffered extensive damage from the tornado.
Linden Barber, secretary on the board of directors of PALS, said the main barn, which houses the arena, horse stalls, offices and more, was completely destroyed. One horse, Banks, suffered a minor injury, but the rest survived.
“Most of our horses were outside,” he said. “We had four in stalls, but it’s actually safer for the horses when there's the possibility of structure damage for them to be in pasture.”
The People and Animal Learning Services' barn was completely destroyed by the tornado. Only one of the four horses that was in a stall during the tornado suffered a minor injury. (Clayton Baumgarth)
Barber said three of the horses that were inside, Bentley, Nemo and Daisy, are minis, so the concrete walls of their stalls protected them better than they would a bigger horse.
Half of the horses are currently being kept offsite while construction is underway to build back enough fencing.
“We had so many damaged fences and couldn't get all of our horses into pasture for weeks ahead,” he said. “And, so we have two horses with one of our former instructors. We have horses just spread around in great homes being well taken care of.”
Barber said they are raising money to purchase temporary office and bathroom trailers. Conversations are underway on how and when services can restart. Despite the extensive damage, he said they were lucky the storm hit on a weekend when no services were being offered.
“Normally, it's pretty busy here on Friday,” he said. “We were in what we call break week between our spring session and summer session. Any other Friday night, you would have had instructors, volunteers and clients in the barn.”
The Monroe County Debris Management Site is accepting storm-damaged trees starting today. The American Red Cross’s shelter at Sherwood Oaks Christian Church will be open for another few days.
