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Tornado causes devastating damage in Madison Co. – 5 p.m.
LAPEL. Ind. (WISH) — A tornado on Monday night left a school administrative building in Madison County without its wall and roof.
The National Weather Service said the EF-2 tornado touched down on the Frankton Lapel Community Schools Administration building. The building, which was formerly a school but retained its original gym, now has very little left intact.
The brick wall collapsed internally, some of it is on the ground. Other bricks toppled on top of school buses, damaging some of them. The school administration is still assessing damages.
Sam Lashley, warning coordinator meteorologist at Indiana National Weather Service, said, “A lot of debris is very indicative of a tornado, the circulating pattern.”
Aerial footage shows the tornado’s swirling pattern, with the roof torn off and displaced approximately 100-150 yards from the building.
Volunteer firefighters said there used to be a Brave Indian mural on the wall but that’s gone. Insulation from the bus garage roof is now stuck on fencing.
The Lafayette Township Volunteer Fire Department said no one was injured.
Lashley said, “I don’t like to say the term weaker tornado but this is probably on the weaker end versus in Sullivan and Winchester over the last 2 years.”
Still, Lashley of the National Weather Service said we got lucky.
“If people were in the building at the time different results would have happened,” she said.
It took the weather service 20 minutes to assess the damages.
“It’s still traumatic for people who work here and see this area so we take the job very seriously and we do our best to get warnings ahead of time for people,” Lashley said.
There was some roof damage on some properties and large tree branches on the ground. The neighbors did not want to appear on camera, but one woman shared with News 8 that she was missing a chicken after the storm destroyed her chicken coop.
With school set to begin next week in the district, the administration is currently evaluating the damage to the buses. It is unclear whether these transportation issues will affect the first day of school.
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