Residents start cleaning up storm damage

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Many homeowners in the area had severe damage from Friday's storm.  Many people had to quickly get help to repair roofs and clear areas of down power lines.

Roger Eversole lives on State Boulevard.  At his home, the top of a large sycamore tree landed on his roof, and ripped into his home. 

Eversole had to clear out his "TV room" to protect is belongings, and placed a bucket in the room to catch water from the leak.

"The tree came down on me and my neighbor," Eversole said.  "Hopefully we got that stopped for the time being."

Within a few minutes of seeing the damage, Eversole was on phone looking for someone to help him remove the tree and repair the damage.

An elderly couple on Lumbard Avenue had a close call when the storm hit.  According to relatives of the couple, a tree split into two piece, and took out both the front and back parts of the home.  The woman who lives there had a cut to her head, and was treated for that injury at a local hospital.

"I can't tell if a lightning bolt hit the tree, or if the wind just knocked it over," Shawn Barnes, a neighbor of the couple said.

Barnes was at home when the storm rolled through.  He said he rain over to the couple's house to make sure everyone was okay.

"We had to climb through the trees," he said, "and tried to go through the front door at first, but it was all blocked over.  There porch had collapsed.  Then we climbed through their trees in the back.  [The homeowner] came out and said there was a live wire behind us so we had to watch out for that."

By the time Barnes made it to his neighbor's house, power in area had already been out.

Indiana Michigan Power has said it could be days before everyone in the area has power restored.