Indianapolis - Call it a "high-rise homecoming" for one of many businesses who had to find temporary homes after April storms damaged the Regions Bank Building. Straight line winds blew out windows and sent employees packing.
"I am so glad to be back. It's great," said Mary Kern, who is working again in her own office on the 29th floor of the Regions Bank building.
Kern is an administrative assistant at the Krieg DeVault Law firm. Storms forced her and about 150 coworkers out of their skyscraper offices. Kern first saw the damage on Canadian television during her vacation..
"They showed our building and the damage. They called it the wrong building but I recognized our building right away," she said.
The storms tore away walls, blew out windows and peeled away part of the building. "I found some glass on the floor where things had blown off the walls," said Michael McDaniel, another tenant.
McDaniel's office is on the 28th floor. "There was heavy dust everywhere that they had to clean and it's been a major undertaking to get this office back into shape," he said.
First thing Monday morning, McDaniel emptied moving boxes and dusted off his personal belongings.
Just one floor up, the Sunday afternoon storm caught one of his colleagues off guard. "I am certain after looking at the devastation of this office that some people could have probably lost their lives here," he said.
The storm day memories for McDaniel and his coworkers are now just a page turn away. Mary Kern helped design this yearbook style of storm-damage photographs. "When you open it up, you're like, wow. That wind could do so much damage," she said. Inside is a snapshot of a damaged conference room. Today it's off limits and locked to employees. Another picture shows a hallway with papers scattered by winds.
In another photograph, you can see where one of the windows was blown out, exposing an office to the elements. "I just feel dizzy looking at that picture - like you are going to step out of somebody's office and the cars look like Hot Wheels," said Kern.
Every employee got their own personal memory book, but nothing beats being back in the office. "There's no place like home," said McDaniel.
Inside you can barely tell the building suffered storm damage. But on the west side of the building, there are still boards where windows used to be. Some of the offices remained closed off.
