Family grieves home was destroyed by a tornado in Pekin, Ill. November 17, 2013.
On November 18, 2013 Senator Dan Coats of Indiana asked for and was granted permission to address the United States Senate regarding several damaging storms that ravaged the Midwest.
“Mr. President, I am here to talk about legislation I have introduced that I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting, but first I would like to make a couple of comments about the terrific storms that roared through the Midwest, including my State, yesterday afternoon and evening. Mother Nature was in full fury and caused significant damage to my State. Fortunately, no deaths were reported, but there were injuries, destroyed buildings, turned-over cars, and downed trees and power lines. There was quite a bit of damage across our State affecting a significant number of towns–Muncie, Kokomo, Marion, Lebanon, Washington, Lafayette, and others. It was a line of storms that packed a lot of power and did a lot of damage.”
“We were fortunate in Indiana not to suffer loss of life. Our neighbors to the west in Illinois took the brunt of this storm. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those families and those loved ones who were lost in that storm”, he said.
“There has been a good response by FEMA. People are on the ground already. Assessments are being made and Hoosiers are rolling up their sleeves and cleaning it up, as we fully expect them to do. The response has been terrific. I certainly have to acknowledge that this caused some severe damage but the response addressing it has been terrific”, said Senator Coats (source: Congressional Record http://thomas.loc.gov).
See related videos: Illinois tornado videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzidIvsqrHw
See also: Tornadoes and damaging storms hit Midwest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k92ruXD8g_M&feature=autoshare and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ6nmnhsRno
See video: Lebanon, Indian Tornado activity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmUTFttRJt4