Families spend Memorial Day weekend cleaning up storm damage in Rochester

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ROCHESTER, Ind. --- Memorial Day weekend is bringing families together for cookouts and more. But in Rochester, it’s bringing families together to clean up.

Thursday’s storm has left a big mess throughout the city with downed trees, fences, and more littering front lawns and streets.

Downed trees around their house and no power are what Sandra and Phillip Kindig woke up to in Rochester Thursday morning.

“The wind pushed through, it was incredible pushing doors open that were locked!” Sandra recalled. “The noise I did not realize it then but the noise was branches falling from this tree and we have another tree back there that lost some branches and of course the tree down there that was literally split in half.”

This Memorial Day weekend they are focusing on cleaning up.

“Our two older children are home for the weekend and I think they planned on other things than helping us clean up,” Sandra said.

On the clean-up list was a tree in front of their home which Phillip estimates has been there for over 70 years.

“[It’s] very sad, yeah,” Phillip said. “I mean I was born and raised in this house so to see this gone it’s a tragedy for me.”

Despite, they’re still making the best out of the weekend by helping others when they can and making the most out of time with family.

“There’s an unexpected level of trauma that you experience that you experience from something like this,” Sandra said. “When we got on our bikes yesterday and started looking at what other people have gone through, we feel so lucky.”

And as for that tree, Phillip said he’s already planning to plant a new one.

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