Authorities across Indianapolis and central Indiana have blasted warnings to seek shelter after multiple funnel clouds were reported in the city and surrounding area.
Marion, Hamilton, Boone, Hancock and other surrounding counties were under a tornado warning late Wednesday afternoon, spurring schools to keep students inside after dismissal and Butler University to advise students to take cover rather than go to classes.
An apparent tornado leveled a Starbucks in Kokomo, about 50 miles north of Indianapolis, though no injuries were reported.
The Indianapolis Department of Homeland Security tweeted that police confirmed at least three funnel clouds in the city. A tornado was reportedly on the ground on the city’s east side, near 21st and Ritter streets.
“It was just twirling,” said Grover Edwards, 49, who works at a cell phone shop at the intersection of 21st Street and Ritter Avenue. “It didn’t destroy nothing, but just twirled and kind of flew over (the intersection).”
Heavy rain followed the funnel cloud sighting. Edwards took shelter inside the shop until things calmed down. Then, he said, his phone started ringing.
“I got four phone calls,” Edwards said. “People were calling me asking if I was ok.”
Across the street from Edward’s shop, Yasmin Betancourt and Michael Christen, of Hoosier Lottery, were installing machines at a new gas station when they noticed “the clouds feeding into themselves.”
“It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen,” Betancourt said. “(The clouds) were moving upwards into this massive rotation.”
When Christen and Betancourt stepped outside to capture the scene on their phones, they saw three young children hunkered down at a bus stop nearby.
“We felt responsible (for them),” Betancourt said. “So we went out there and took care of those three kids.”
They brought the children inside the gas station and waited for the storm to pass.
Funnel clouds were also spotted near the state fairgrounds, north of downtown Indianapolis, near 38th and Georgetown, as well as on the city’s far east side in the 200 block of South Shortridge Road, according to the IDHS.
Government workers in the City County Building downtown were alerted Wednesday afternoon to take shelter in the stairwells, before receiving the all clear to return to work about 20 minutes later.
As of 5 p.m., Meridian Hills, Warren Park, the southern portion of Marion County, Brownsburg and Zionsville remained under a tornado warning, along with a number of counties south of Indianapolis, including Owen and Greene counties.
Storms rolling through Indianapolis left more than 11,000 Indianapolis Power & Light customers in the dark as of 5 p.m. Wednesday.
By Madeline Buckley and Michael Anthony Adams,posted 8:15 p.m. EDT August 24, 2016
Photo by Robert Scheer “Tornado damage at Starbucks Kokomo. No word of injuries yet”
