GREENWOOD, Ind. — In the Golden Grove neighborhood off Saddle Club Road in Greenwood, you don't just see storm damage.
You hear it.
For two days, there's been a concert of chippers, chainsaws and stump grinders where an EF2 tornado stole the neighborhood's serenity.
The park-like setting is now decimated, with hundreds of trees just gone.
Homeowner Van Blades, who's lived in Golden Grove for more than 30 years, lost at least 30 trees on Sunday.
"We live down in the little valley here, so we thought we were a little protected because maybe they'd jump over us. But, uh, this one didn't jump over us," Blades said.
The tornado nearly took him out, too. He was driving into the neighborhood when it hit.
"I was in my truck and I looked down and there was a tornado coming toward me, so I just threw it in reverse," Blades said. "I didn't sit there and gawk at it, I just got the heck outta town."
It's a good thing he did.
Home security video shows a couple of 100-year-old trees in his front yard getting toppled by the twister. A tree also smashed his granddaughter's car and downed trees damaged several homes, leaving a few open to the elements.
Central Indiana storm damage | June 25, 2023
Johnson County filed a local disaster declaration since the storm. Now, the state is taking action, too.
Joel Thacker, executive director of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, toured damage Tuesday across the county with firefighters, assessing the scope of the storm.
"What is it that folks need right now? We're trying to get access in here, and that's a big part of it. Getting power turned back on — we still have folks that are without power and have been without power since Sunday," Thacker said. "So what's going to be required to help these folks find some sort of normalcy together and put things back together? Especially in this neighborhood, the sheer amount of trees, the debris removal, that's very expensive. And so that's what we'll be working with the county to figure out how we can provide more physical and financial assistance."
IDHS wants anyone with tornado damage in Indiana to report it to 211. That will start the recovery process.
In Golden Grove, despite days of cleanup, there's still a long way to go. That tornado literally changed this landscape.
"Things can be replaced. Trees can grow back," Blades said. "But you know it's just stuff. God is good. Nobody got hurt or killed."