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Johnson County families recount moment tornado struck

Storms left damage across Johnson County Sunday.

JOHNSON COUNTY, Ind. — “I was gone literally 10 minutes and that happened,” said Mandy King.

She's referring to the moment a storm struck, leaving three trees atop her Tracey Road home, just north of Bargersville.  

It's damage King and her family are now trying to clean up. She said she had just left the house a few minutes earlier Sunday afternoon when she spotted a funnel cloud. 

“I could see it was headed this way, that was my concern,” said King. 

Concerned, too, because her 15-year-old son, Carson, was home alone and wasn’t answering the phone. 

King wasn’t the only one worried.   

Her 11-year-old son, Thomas, was coming home from a baseball game in Kentucky and was monitoring the weather on his phone. 

“I told my dad the tornado was coming, and my dad called Carson and said, ‘Take cover! The tornadoes coming!’” Carson recalled. 

That’s just what the 15-year-old did, taking cover in the bathroom with the family’s dog. 

“It does sound like a train,” Carson said, describing the sounds he heard when the tornado came through. 

After about 15 seconds though, there was quiet. Carson came out to see at least three trees on top of the house, with even more large branches. 

“It was a disaster,” said Carson. 

“We’re just praising the Lord that it wasn’t any worse.  No lives lost,” said Carson’s grandmother, Cathy Johnson. 

What’s ahead now is a lot of work and weeks of clean up.  

“It’s going to take a while to clean up, but we’re here for every second of it,” said Thomas, showing off the hockey gloves he was wearing during the clean up efforts. 

In Greenwood, residents are also focused on rebuilding.

"It was like a train. It was like a loud machine over the top of us," said Kim Olsen.

Olsen said she still can't believe what she witnessed outside her apartment on Sunday.

"I was on the front porch. I was like 'is that a tornado?' I got out in the yard and there was debris flying, birds flying everywhere. I watched it all the way through," she said.

She said things escalated quickly.

"I ran in and slammed the door at the last minute. Locked it. Ran in and jumped over my little boy in the bathtub and sat there until it was over. My ears were popping. It was the worst sound ever," said Olsen. 

After seeing the tornado damage, she said she feels lucky to be alive.

"It took the roof off from the one across from me. It's gone. All I have is a busted-out window and a dent in my car from a tree," she said.

Earnest Archie is the maintenance supervisor for a nearby apartment complex. He said his phone had been ringing nonstop since the storm passed. He said he's never handled a job as big as this one, but he's not worried about it getting done.

"This is a tight-knit community, so I'm glad there were no deaths or anything like that," said Archie.

It's good news even in all the destruction.

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