Weekend storms slam Emison

EMISON, IND. (WTHI) - A small southern Indiana community is cleaning up a big mess left behind by the weekend's severe weather.

The northern Knox County town of Emison was badly battered by strong winds that rolled through early Sunday morning.

The powerful storm left plenty of damage, but fortunately no injuries in its wake.

The Clark family brought out the chainsaw, and neighbors pitched in to clear debris left by a weekend storm that rocked the tiny town of Emison.

The storm hit after most people had gone to bed and awoke them with a windy roar.

"It was real scary," said Marsha Clark, who hunkered down in her bathroom as the storm roared through town.  "I know that.   I just prayed to God.  That's all you can do at a time like that."

The high winds bent a TV tower and ripped the porch off of a home on the west side of town.

But, the worst damage was on the east side where winds reaching 80-miles-per-hour tore the roof off of a large structure and sent it careening and crashing into nearby buildings.

Some of it blew over the houses next door into other yards, ripping down electrical service and impaling out buildings with two by fours.

The powerful the winds took giant piece of roof off of a building that was more than a block away and left it hanging in a tree.

Despite the damage, folks consider themselves lucky because no one was hurt.

"We're all very fortunate in this area here, right where it happened," said Clark.  "That's the most important thing is being alive because you can always replace what's damaged."

For now, the concentration is on cleaning up the big mess and putting the quiet back into the small town of Emison.

That same storm blew a large tree over the CSX Railroad tracks halting rail traffic north of Vincennes for several hours.