Storms ripped through northern Indiana on Tuesday, leaving thousands of residents without power and damage to clean up.
Heavy thunderstorms and winds traveling from 70 to 80 mph left 50,000 residents without power, according to the South Bend Tribune.
The downtown and west-side areas of South Bend were the hardest hit by storms that moved into the area at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Ball State student Novie Benassi, from South Bend, said that her parents' home did not experience any damage, but they were only a mile away from some of the worst of it.
"My dad went wandering and couldn't even get into downtown due to the storm damage," Benassi said.
Ball State student Ashley Lloyd said her boyfriend spent an hour in the basement of his Goshen home while tornado sirens sounded.
Tornado warnings were issued on Tuesday for St. Joseph and Elkhart counties, according to the South Bend Tribune.
However, according to the Associated Press, only one tornado, in Mishawaka, was reported. That tornado did not stay on the ground for long and no injuries were reported.
The home of Lloyd's boyfriend was not damaged, but he was without power for close to 13 hours, Lloyd said.
"He told me that right now Goshen is just a bunch of puddles and tree limbs," Lloyd said.
South Bend Mayor Stephen J. Luecke told the South Bend Tribune that this was the worst storm damage in the last 20 years.
On Wednesday evening American Electric Power spokesman Tom Kratt said that 23,500 residents were still without electricity, according to the Associated Press.
Benassi's mother teaches at a school in South Bend, but with no electricity Wednesday morning the school was forced to cancel the first day of classes.
The South Bend area is not expected to have any more storms until Friday when there is a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms, according to weather.com.
Robert Swartz, assistant professor of geography, said that storms such as these usually occur during the spring when the most extreme temperature changes occur.
However, because of the cool summer and large amounts of rain, these storms have not come until recently, Swartz said.
Swartz also warned that a front moving into the Muncie area this weekend could bring some storms of its own.
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