Overview
- An EF-2 tornado struck Merrillville about two weeks earlier, damaging homes and hitting Andrean High School and nearby neighborhoods.
- Town officials and local groups set up a command center to deploy hundreds of volunteers for coordinated debris removal and relief operations.
- Nearly 100 Andrean High School students organized by the Big Shoulders Fund joined residents to clear branches, sort debris and support neighbors.
- The American Red Cross, Salvation Army and United Way have been handing out supplies such as gloves, rakes and tarps and directing volunteers to hardest-hit streets.
- Recent heavy rain and storms have caused localized outages and slowed work, leaving recovery active and likely to continue for several more weeks.