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'Homeless and jobless': Storms batter some already hurting from COVID-19 pandemic

Amanda Carter recently lost her job and after Wednesday night storms, she's also without a home.

MOORESVILLE, Ind. (WTHR) — Amanda Carter sat in her car Thursday afternoon, staring at the home she can no longer live in for now.

The words were hard to find.

“I don’t know where to begin. I don’t even know where to go,” she said.

Carter and her husband were inside Wednesday night when a severe thunderstorm blew through, uprooting a large tree that came crashing down into their house.

“(It was) the loudest wind I’ve ever heard and then a big crash. And we just new it was the tree. It came straight through the kitchen,” she said.

Carter had been trying to weather a different storm the last few weeks. Coronavirus forced the restaurant where she worked to close.

“So I’m homeless and jobless right now,” she said.

Businesses were damaged on Main Street in Mooresville Wednesday night because of a storm. (WTHR/Dustin Grove)

More than a dozen homes and businesses were damaged in Moorseville during Wednesday night’s storms. Some downtown buildings partially collapsed. Roofs were blown off.

“These are 140, 150-year-old buildings and to see this happen to friends and family and neighbors, words really can’t describe it,” said town council member Dustin Stanley.

Casey Pratt’s family owns a coffee shop on West Main Street.

“The whole front wall that faces main street got blown down in one piece,” she said.

The dining room had been closed for weeks due to COVID-19. But like other businesses along Main Street, it had been open for curbside service and catering.

“Some of the few businesses on main street were trying to stay open and at least serve food. Now we can’t,” Pratt said.

“Most of them have been struggling just to make carryout,” Stanley said. “The creativity that they’ve come up with is pretty astonishing. I’m not sure what they’re going to do now.”

Storm damage on Main Street in Mooresville. (WTHR/Dustin Grove)

Pratt said her family is doing all they can. They’ve cleaned up, reached out to their insurance company, and they’re thankful for the community that’s reaching out to them.

“We’ve gotten a lot of prayers and support on Facebook, texts from our friends and family and extended family our customers. They’re all willing to help and pitch in to help us get back on our feet again ,” Pratt said.

Carter is also trying to stay optimistic.

“I’m just grateful that I know we’re safe. So I know that I shouldn’t be freaking out about material (things),” she said. “But … it’s been a long few weeks, and it’s going to be even longer now."

On Thursday evening, the National Weather Service confirmed an EF-1 tornado hit Mooresville.

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