In the aftermath of the storm, residents ventured outside to witness widespread wind and water damage.
Along with over a half million people without power in Indiana and Ohio.
There were trees ripped out of the ground across Fort Wayne and New Haven.
Power outages caused traffic nightmares through downtown--
And we talked to a few people who had close calls with falling branches.
Traffic slowed to a crawl down Hillegas, and remained slow on Jefferson Boulevard towards downtown.
In Fort Wayne's West Central neighborhood, large branches littered the ground.
A woman at Fort Wayne's hope house was hit by two broken branches.
"It actually fell on one of my residents. She's ok, it just missed her. She was going back inside. Her flip flop is still down there, but she was able to get out ok. As you can see, my supervisor's car is blocked in. So we're not really sure how she can get out. We're talking about that now," says Hope House case leader Amanda Holcomb.
"Yea, the storm started, and I ran in, and a branch fell over the top of the tree first and it hit me, and I climbed out and the other one fell, and I just ran up on the porch," says a Hope House resident.
The neighborhood had nearly no home damage.
Down the street, another Hope House resident almost lost her parked car to an uprooted tree.
"I was coming back from the farmer's market, and we were pulling up in the car, and I noticed the tree was down, and I knew my car was on the other side of it. Of course, I ran to check to see if it was ok, and it was," says another Hope House resident.
We continued down Jefferson with more stop and go traffic.
Signals remained dark, slowing intersections.
At Jefferson and Broadway, businesses had no electricity, but some remained open, like the Cap 'n Cork.
Store manager Amy Keegan says business continued without power, but it has been hectic.
"We were trying to keep the doors shut, because the winds were coming through and just barreled through here. We had some people in the store, it was ugly for a second. We had trees fall down, all the traffic was routing through our- it was just a mess," says Keegan.
Outside, Kevin Deverux and his wife were visiting from Ontario for a wedding.
He says the storm was unlike anything he's ever seen.
"We were just driving around doing some shopping. At summit cycle, when it- we tried to get in there, we were in the car for ten minutes, fifteen minutes, and when we got out, it was devastating. All the trees down, and things like that, we've never seen a storm like this. It was so dark, and we were taking pictures because I've never seen darkness like this at three," says Deverux.
The storm sent Anthony Crews and his friends home from their job at market surge in north Fort Wayne on Clinton Street.
"We were at work, and it got real dark, the next thing you know, hard wind, that sideways rain, the power got knocked off, and the boss said it was time to go. We still had to wait a while before we could leave, because there were certain areas where the road was flooded and there were trees down everywhere. I mean, we passed a house that had two trees down on either side of it. It was just a mess out there, man," says Crews.
Downtown Fort Wayne had branches and roof tiles on the sidewalks.
City workers had to reinstall the 'Washington Boulevard' street sign at the Calhoun intersection.
Port-a-potties wobbled...
And Lois Eubanks swept up some of the mess on Wayne Street.
"And then I decided finally to venture out, to find a lot of debris in front of our entire building here, from Toscani's down to the tribune, so I started out here with a good old shovel and started shoveling up into piles," says Eubanks.
North of downtown, Spy Run Avenue was a mess-- as was most of State Boulevard.
Across New Haven- broken trees and down power lines.
The storm leaves a mess that could take into next week to fully clean up.
A lot of what made this bad was the timing-- on a Friday afternoon, right before the evening commute.
Some areas, like Warsaw, saw quarter-sized hail from the storms.
Fort Wayne had strong winds, and some rain, but with the storm moving so fast, it could have been a lot worse.
Along with over a half million people without power in Indiana and Ohio.
There were trees ripped out of the ground across Fort Wayne and New Haven.
Power outages caused traffic nightmares through downtown--
And we talked to a few people who had close calls with falling branches.
Traffic slowed to a crawl down Hillegas, and remained slow on Jefferson Boulevard towards downtown.
In Fort Wayne's West Central neighborhood, large branches littered the ground.
A woman at Fort Wayne's hope house was hit by two broken branches.
"It actually fell on one of my residents. She's ok, it just missed her. She was going back inside. Her flip flop is still down there, but she was able to get out ok. As you can see, my supervisor's car is blocked in. So we're not really sure how she can get out. We're talking about that now," says Hope House case leader Amanda Holcomb.
"Yea, the storm started, and I ran in, and a branch fell over the top of the tree first and it hit me, and I climbed out and the other one fell, and I just ran up on the porch," says a Hope House resident.
The neighborhood had nearly no home damage.
Down the street, another Hope House resident almost lost her parked car to an uprooted tree.
"I was coming back from the farmer's market, and we were pulling up in the car, and I noticed the tree was down, and I knew my car was on the other side of it. Of course, I ran to check to see if it was ok, and it was," says another Hope House resident.
We continued down Jefferson with more stop and go traffic.
Signals remained dark, slowing intersections.
At Jefferson and Broadway, businesses had no electricity, but some remained open, like the Cap 'n Cork.
Store manager Amy Keegan says business continued without power, but it has been hectic.
"We were trying to keep the doors shut, because the winds were coming through and just barreled through here. We had some people in the store, it was ugly for a second. We had trees fall down, all the traffic was routing through our- it was just a mess," says Keegan.
Outside, Kevin Deverux and his wife were visiting from Ontario for a wedding.
He says the storm was unlike anything he's ever seen.
"We were just driving around doing some shopping. At summit cycle, when it- we tried to get in there, we were in the car for ten minutes, fifteen minutes, and when we got out, it was devastating. All the trees down, and things like that, we've never seen a storm like this. It was so dark, and we were taking pictures because I've never seen darkness like this at three," says Deverux.
The storm sent Anthony Crews and his friends home from their job at market surge in north Fort Wayne on Clinton Street.
"We were at work, and it got real dark, the next thing you know, hard wind, that sideways rain, the power got knocked off, and the boss said it was time to go. We still had to wait a while before we could leave, because there were certain areas where the road was flooded and there were trees down everywhere. I mean, we passed a house that had two trees down on either side of it. It was just a mess out there, man," says Crews.
Downtown Fort Wayne had branches and roof tiles on the sidewalks.
City workers had to reinstall the 'Washington Boulevard' street sign at the Calhoun intersection.
Port-a-potties wobbled...
And Lois Eubanks swept up some of the mess on Wayne Street.
"And then I decided finally to venture out, to find a lot of debris in front of our entire building here, from Toscani's down to the tribune, so I started out here with a good old shovel and started shoveling up into piles," says Eubanks.
North of downtown, Spy Run Avenue was a mess-- as was most of State Boulevard.
Across New Haven- broken trees and down power lines.
The storm leaves a mess that could take into next week to fully clean up.
A lot of what made this bad was the timing-- on a Friday afternoon, right before the evening commute.
Some areas, like Warsaw, saw quarter-sized hail from the storms.
Fort Wayne had strong winds, and some rain, but with the storm moving so fast, it could have been a lot worse.
