HENRYVILLE, Ind. — Wednesday, March 2 marks ten years since a devastating tornado outbreak tore through southern Indiana.
Henryville was hit hardest – hundreds of homes destroyed, hundreds more damaged and one person killed, while trying to protect his wife in the storm.
A decade later, the stories of recovery and resilience in Henryville are nothing short of remarkable.
Homes are rebuilt and life has gone from chaos, back to calm.
Nowhere is that more evident, that in Henryville's schools, where hundreds of children survived what could have been a deadly disaster.
Who can forget the images: a school bus wedged into a restaurant, from 200 mph winds; a high school gym, collapsed in a direct hit captured on security cameras.
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But students and educators who lived through that EF4 tornado in 2012 say each year since is cause for celebration.
They made it through weather's worst.
"It's my tenth birthday. The survivors of Henryville tornado, it's their tenth birthday as we're all blessed to get a chance to continue to live our lives," said former Henryville Junior-Senior High School principal Troy Albert. "I even send my son a birthday card on this day every year for that reason."
Some 1,300 students and 130 staffers survived because of one key decision that Friday afternoon to send the buses and try to get kids home.
"I went on the P.A. and made an announcement that we were going to dismiss at this time, that we needed the drivers to travel safe and get to a safe spot as the tornado is headed our way and looks like it's going to come right at the school," Albert said. "The bus drivers are the true heroes."
The tornado did come right at the schools. Twice.
Two storm cells ten minutes apart shredded the buildings, as 85 students and staff who remained inside huddled in concrete offices and bathrooms.
The whole experience, Albert said, is still emotional a decade later.
"I rewatched the video yesterday of the gym. That was devastating in a matter of seconds. When you see the doors kind of just flicker and then the whole wall comes across? Twenty minutes later, there could have been kids playing pickleball right there," he said.
Isaac Middleton was a seventh grader in 2012.
His mom, who worked at the school, got him home before the storm hit.
Their family rode it out in a basement.
"It does not feel like ten years. At all," Middleton said. "I remember someone ran by the house and said 'The school's completely gone.' We were like, 'Oh, gosh!'"
Middleton is now a first-year high school biology teacher, teaching in the same building that crews worked so hard to rebuild, completing a renovation just months after the monster storm hit.
The takeaways now, Middleton said, include that dedication of an entire community to recover.
"It gives you a sense of pride being from here," Middleton said.
"It really brought everybody together and everybody comes back and remembers that early March," added Zachary Phillips, who was 13 when the tornadoes went through.
He spent part of the anniversary at an Ash Wednesday service at St. Francis-Xavier, a church that suffered damage in 2021.
"Everyone rebuilt. Everyone's stronger than they were before," Phillips said.
There's also now a legacy here of protecting kids.
Troy Albert is now a principal at Salem High School.
That school district, which is undergoing some building construction, is now adding safe rooms specifically because of what happened in Henryville.
It's all about making sure when the next storm hits, students survive, again.
"Some of the things they saw in the videos are the reasons why we're able to do that right now and we'll be the only school in Indiana with three safe rooms," Albert said. "Because what I remember most is spending that moment with that parent of joy - that their kid was safe and everything was gonna be OK."
The Clark County Museum in Jeffersonville has a new exhibit commemorating the 10th anniversary of the tornado outbreak. It opens Wednesday, March 2 and continues through the end of the month.
Learn more about it by clicking here.