Sullivan residents are starting to rebuild almost three weeks after an EF-3 tornado killed three people and severely damaged more than 200 buildings in the county.
Many demolished homes have cleared away after sustaining enough damage to make them unsuitable for living.
Several blocks along Sullivan’s southern rim are now nearly empty.
Sullivan Director of Public Works JD Wilson said Sullivan looks like a new place since the disaster. “For this bad situation that we’ve been handed, the cleanup has made it look like a different place every day. It’s just improved, improved, improved,” Wilson said.
Only a few homes remain in the hard-hit area as homeowners battle insurance companies for a payout.
Lesa Wolfe owns two homes in the area. Her daughter and her three kids are living in a Coleman trailer provided by their insurance company as they wait for damage assessors to visit.
Wolfe said she’s shocked that her insurance company says there is not enough damage for a payout. “There's a 26-by-26-foot skylight that was not there when I went to bed,” she said.
Wolfe said her daughter’s family plans to rebuild on the same spot as soon as the money comes through.
“They're coming home just as soon as they can,” she said. “As soon as they can get help to rebuild, though, they will all be back.”
Wolfe said that many of her neighbors did not have insurance, and so an Amish company based in Odon, Ind., is donating labor and materials to help out several residents.
Yoder Brothers Construction has already finished a few structures and will complete the first fully-rebuilt house in the area by the end of the week.
Jonathan Kemp volunteered for the Yoder Brothers’ team as they framed the first house. He said they will move on to reconstruct the house on the now-empty lot across the street next.
“It was like three or four days after the storm went through [when] I think they built the first building that they did,” Kemp said.
Sullivan Director of Public Works JD Wilson urged residents to get a building permit from the city before rebuilding – a process he said will be expedited.
FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance teams are starting to go door-to-door in several counties to help residents apply for FEMA assistance.
Other counties that sustained damage in the string of tornadoes earlier this month will be eligible for FEMA assistance as well, including Allen, Benton, Clinton, Grant, Howard, Johnson, Lake, Monroe, Morgan, Owen, Sullivan, and White counties.
