Flash flooding, tornadoes ravage area

Spectators gathered around the flooded west side of campus Wednesday evening. People waded in water up to their waists and others took photos with their camera phones at the intersection of Seventh Street and Woodlawn Avenue. \nRecent graduate Joyashish Thakurta rolled up his pants and carried his dress shoes in order to ford the river from the IMU to Seventh Street. He had just visited the bookstore and was on his way home. \n“Walking through was my only option,” said Thakurta.\n Sophomore Wayne Levinson and senior Adam Naugle ripped off their shirts and dove off bridges near Dunn Meadow. They slid through mud on their chests, and discovered floating debris such as a turtle. They were working out at the HPER building when the storm began, and found that their cars were blocked by the flood. \n“It’s crazy,” said Levinson. “I couldn’t believe cars were trying to drive through this.”\nIU Police Department Sgt. Don Schmuhl reported calls of cars stalled in intersections with passengers, flooding of Third Street businesses, water damage of University buildings, fallen trees and lightning damage to Foster dormitory that could affect its fire alarm system.\n“This is the most water I’ve seen in the 30 years I’ve worked here,” Schmuhl said. \nThe flood brought out Bloomington residents as well. Clara Garcia of Cottage Grove Drive brought her sons Diego, 10, and Pablo, 8, to Dunn Meadow to swim. She said in her 25 years living in Bloomington she had never seen anything like this flood.\nClaire Shean, 7, had just come back from summer camp at Hoosier Courts and happened to have her swimsuit on. Claire and her brother Jack, 12, ate mulberries and watched the chaos. \n“This is much more fun than a swimming pool,” Claire said. \nMeanwhile, tornadoes in a storm front that swept through central Indiana on Tuesday destroyed numerous homes, skipped over National Guard barracks full of soldiers and critically injured at least one person, authorities said.\nThe wave of thunderstorms kept moving across the state’s midsection for hours until late Wednesday morning and caused widespread flash flooding as five inches of rain was reported overnight in some areas.\nA tornado hit the small community of Moscow in Rush County, where it left a landmark 19th century wooden covered bridge in splinters and injured at least 10 people, according to the state homeland security department.\nDiane Hester, 66, was impaled in the upper chest by a 3-inch diameter tree limb when a tornado leveled her home along the Flatrock River, said Charles Smith, chief of the Posey Township Volunteer Fire Department.\nHester was in critical but stable condition at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, hospital spokesman Gene Ford said.\nSmith, who helped rescue Hester, said she was awake when she was found in storm debris near the river.\n“Her house was gone, along the side of the river bank. There’s nothing left of it,” he said. “She didn’t talk, but she was moaning. I just hope she makes it.”\nThe storm raked the community of about 80 residents about 35 miles southeast of Indianapolis, destroying one home, damaging several others and downing trees and utility lines. It also blew off the top floor of a four-story brick schoolhouse, littering the area with red bricks.\nThe overnight storms also damaged 40 buildings, including the post chapel at the Indiana National Guard’s Camp Atterbury near Edinburgh about 25 miles south of Indianapolis, Lt. Col. Deedra Thombleson said.\nA trailer was picked up by the storm and landed on the roof of a public works building, she said. Two soldiers were hurt as they were driving back to the base to seek shelter when their car struck a gate. One of the soldiers was taken to a hospital and the other returned to the base, she said.\nThe Associated Press contributed to this report.