Storm tracker shares his experience with recent storms

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) – Indiana is still in a statewide disaster emergency as Hoosiers deal with damage from historic flooding.

RELATED: Gov. Braun declares ‘Statewide Disaster Emergency’ following widespread damage from flooding, storms

Nathan Lorenzen, the vice president of an Angola-based group called Indiana Storm Chasers, has seen several of the recent storms firsthand. He said the most memorable was an intense windstorm, called a derecho, that passed through Cloverdale, just east of Terre Haute.

“The wind and the rain and the hail was like a hurricane,” Lorenzen said.

“I couldn’t see the road, hailstones pelting my car, tree limbs down everywhere, flooding on the roads; it was nerve-racking because I didn’t, I would feel more safe if I wasn’t surrounded by trees, but where I was there was a lot of trees.”

Lorenzen said times like these remind us why people who document storms first-hand are so important.

“The radar can only tell a big enough story,” he said. “The radar being, it’s always tilted at an angle, so it doesn’t see what’s happening at the ground, and that’s where spotters and chasers come in handy.”

Now, Lorenzen and other Indiana Storm Chasers members are focused on raising donations to help flood victims get back on their feet.

“It’s so important because we can’t control when it happens or where it happens, so it’s hard to stay prepared even though we try to tell you guys to stay prepared because these huge events like this it takes a huge amount of resources,” he said.

To learn more about Indiana Storm Chasers, email indstormchasers@gmail.com.