Amish communities quickly repair tornado damage in Michigan and Indiana
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/04/2025 (500 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
BETHEL, Mich. (AP) — No contractors, no repair estimates, no haggling with the insurance company: After a tornado struck an Amish community in Michigan, the work was underway even before the National Weather Service could assess the damage.
Meteorologists make site visits to determine the speed, breadth and impact of a tornado. But sometimes the hammers have already been swinging.
That’s what Dustin Norman of the weather service found in Branch County, Michigan, a few days after a tornado Wednesday with peak winds of 100 mph (160 kph). The Amish had put new shingles on a home, reframed a barn and made other major repairs in their community.
He said the situation was similar in an Amish area hit by a tornado that day in Adams County, Indiana, 90 miles (145 kilometers) south.
“Once something gets damaged, they just fix it,” Norman said Tuesday. “We can’t always get out there for two or three days. When we do, it looks like nothing happened. … I completely respect how quickly they get stuff done.”
The Amish generally are private and insular and maintain a degree of separation from common society. Approximately 61% of the North American Amish population lives in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana, according to Elizabethtown College.