By rssfeeds-admin March 14, 2024, will be a day the residents of the two small eastern Indiana towns will remember forever. Late that night, two tornadoes touched down minutes apart.
An EF-2 tornado cut through Selma for six minutes, tearing roofs off homes and throwing trees to the ground.
Jean Stanley barely made it to her small bathroom in her home of 25 years before the tornado swept in. Her daughter, Susan Campbell, got to her mother’s house minutes after the tornado left town.
”When we got here, the whole south side of the house was gone,” Campbell said. “And it was just absolutely unbelievable. You can’t even imagine it until you’ve actually seen it. That stuff, that doesn’t happen here.”
Making the day even more emotional for the family, the tornado marked the sixth anniversary of Stanley, Jean’s husband and Campbell’s father, passing away.
”I know God and my Daddy were looking after my mom that day,” Campbell said.
Campbell said if her mother hadn’t taken shelter in that bathroom, she would’ve certainly been hurt, or worse.
Shortly after, an even more powerful EF-3 tornado touched down in nearby Winchester. The twister injured multiple people and damaged dozens of buildings.
Jim Wallace was sitting in his living room watching basketball when he started to see the storm warnings. After going outside to check, he thought he was in the clear.
”As soon as I sat down, I heard the loudest noise that I’ve ever heard and it sounded like a big old freight train bearing down on me,” Wallace said. “I thought, ‘Holy smokes, you better get some cover.’ But I didn’t make it, I was going to the bathroom and I didn’t quite make it and the whole damn ceiling come crashing down and knocked me colder than a mackerel.”
Wallace said he was unconscious until the paramedics showed up minutes later, fearing the worst.
”First thing I remember was somebody slapping me and saying, ‘Wake up,'” Wallace said. “And when I woke up, it was raining on me, and I thought, ‘Hell, there ain’t no roof up there.’ I thought, ‘Wow, must’ve been a bad one.'”
Wallace was taken to the hospital but somehow had made it through the storm with only bruises and scratches.
Others weren’t as lucky. In the weeks following the tornado, two Winchester residents died from their injuries.
When Wallace was discharged from the hospital, he found his house was destroyed, along with every house on his side of the block.
Winchester Mayor Bob McCoy said the town had more than $12 million in damages, with roughly 45 homes damaged beyond repair.
”It looked like a warzone, it really did,” said McCoy. “It looked like we had been bombed.”
It’s almost been a year since the storms hit, and the town is starting to get back to normal. Wallace has now moved into a brand new home on the same plot of land as his old one. He said he’s grateful to his family and neighbors.
”They helped me get back in here, and I’m sure glad to be back,” Wallace said.
Jean Stanley was also able to move back into her new home, right where her old one used to be.
”I am very proud of this house,” Campbell said, who served an important role in helping her mother. “It was a lot of emotion for my mom, for myself, for our whole family.”
Getting a new home isn’t perfect. Stanley and her family lost much more than a roof over their head when their home came down.
”It was the loss of all the memories in the home, of our dad, of all the kids when they were little,” Campbell said. “It’s just a lot of emotion when I think about the house that was here and the house that’s here now.”
But Campbell said her family feels blessed to still have their mother here and a new opportunity for memories.
That’s exactly what multiple families are hoping for across Selma and Winchester, who are still trying to rebuild.
Many homes are under construction, but you also see empty plots or leftover foundations where homes used to be.
The Selma Town Council is working to help those who need it.
”For the residents who were uninsured or underinsured, we had a recovery committee who took the funds that were donated to the community and dispersed those based on their needs,” said Jensen Glaze, the President of Selma Town Council.
The town council is also preparing for the possibility that this could happen again with money from the Delaware County Commissioners.
”We were able to put some generators, fully installed generators, in our police department, fire department, and town hall,” said Cindy Cox, a member of the Selma Town Council.
If another storm rolls through, those buildings can act as shelter and won’t lose power if the rest of the town were to.
In Winchester, crews were actively working on a house down the street from Wallace as we talked to him. At the same time, there were still two empty plots across the street where homes used to be. Wallace said nothing is stopping his neighborhood.
”We’re proud people here in Winchester,” he said. “This is a tough little town.”
McCoy said it’ll take time, but they’re focused on the recovery.
”I’d say a year from now this whole neighborhood will be back to what it was but better, bigger nicer homes,” McCoy said.
The events on the evening of March 14, 2024, will hang with the people in these towns.
For the first time since those tornadoes, the sirens went off Tuesday morning for a statewide test. It once again reminded this community what they’ve been through.
”It brought back memories, and it shook me a little bit,” Wallace said.
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