Clean up after Thursday storms continue in Elkhart

ELKHART COUNTY, Ind. - Thunderstorms rolled through Michiana Thursday, and it seems parts of Elkhart County felt the brunt of the damage.

The gusty winds, hail and heavy rain nailed Lundquist Park, filling it with debris, scattering branches, and knocking down trees.  

Elkhart Parks and Rec Superintendent Jamison Czarnecki says crews are still working to get everything cleaned up-24 hours later.  

“Today they’re out for round two. They have taken out a lot of trees and removed a lot of debris. It's knocked out of a couple of bench swings. Luckily, park users have clearly been using the sidewalks and the other amenities as needed. But there is no doubt that things got to get cleaned up and they’ve been working as hard as they can.”  

Czarnecki says he hopes the park will be cleaned out by Monday or Tuesday.  

He says the city has rolled out a new initiative called My Elkhart 311. This way residents can contact the city if they ever need assistance with storm damage or other issues.  

“It’s a great way to communicate with the administration and the department heads of those departments. It provides an opportunity to people can send it in quickly and let us know in real time which creates a trackable working number that sends it out and our crews will get to it.”