Employees survive in office as tornado destroys Goodwill in Winchester

WINCHESTER, Ind. (WISH) — Over 30 people were injured when a tornado touched down in Winchester, Indiana on Thursday, March 14.

Two women who were inside the Goodwill in Winchester when the tornado struck Thursday evening say they’re thankful they made it out.

Aubrey Cooper, 19, and Skye Henderson, 18, were working inside the Goodwill on Greenville Pike when the storms hit around 8 p.m.

*Skye Henderson and Aubrey Cooper pose outside the Goodwill where they were both working the night the tornado hit Winchester, destroying multiple businesses and homes.*

Henderson said it was her first day of work on Thursday. She had clocked in around 4 p.m. and was being trained when the severe storms started.

When the tornado alarms sounded around 8 p.m., there were five people inside the store, according to Cooper.

PHOTOS | Tornado destroys Winchester Goodwill

“We got an alert on our phones,” Cooper said. “We talked to our main manager, and he said to go ahead and shut the store down and get in a safe place.”

They all went into an office and shut the door, taking cover wherever they could inside the room.

The image above shows the inside of the Goodwill in Winchester after an EF-3 tornado hit March 14. The back wall shows where the office used to stand, where five people were huddled when the tornado hit.

“I was trying to calm myself down,” Cooper said. “I was like ‘It might come, but it’s not going to hit us.’ I was just trying to keep myself calm.”

Within minutes of taking cover, the tornado was over top of them.

“I didn’t realize it was actually going to happen until you could feel the pressure in your ears, like being on a plane. Like your ears stared popping,” Cooper said. “Then the lights went out, the emergency lights came on and within five to 10 seconds we were being pushed.”

“We were underneath a table,” Henderson said. “I was holding onto it and within seconds it flew off. And not even a second later you could feel rain inside. It was crazy.”

Cooper said the experience was surreal, and not anything like she has ever seen described.

“They say you can hear a train noise, we didn’t hear it,” Cooper said. “It went too fast.”

As soon as they realized it was over they began digging themselves out.

Cooper and Henderson said they made their way through the debris and outside, where they looked around for help. They said it felt like less than a minute between the time the tornado hit and they were standing outside looking for help. It was several minutes before the police arrived and directed them over to the nearby Walmart.

PHOTOS | Cemetery in Selma destroyed by tornado

That Goodwill location was just one of multiple businesses and homes destroyed by the tornado that left a trail of damage from Selma through Winchester.

The National Weather Service has preliminarily rated the Thursday’s tornado as an EF-3 with maximum gusts from 155-165 mph. It touched down at 7:37 p.m. in Selma and traveled more than 25 miles, ending near the Ohio border.

*The above map shows the track of the EF-3 tornado that hit Winchester, Indiana on March 14.*

A shopping center right next to the Goodwill was destroyed, with all five businesses suffering extensive damage.

The Taco Bell on the same stretch of property was also destroyed, the entire building gone from the foundation. Taco Bell employees on the scene Friday tell WISH-TV there were about 10 people inside when the tornado hit, but all of them survived.

*The Taco Bell in Winchester, shown March 15, 2024, was leveled in a Thursday night tornado. (WISH Photo/Katie Cox)*

According to authorities, 38 people were injured during the storm with a dozen of them needing to be hospitalized. As of Saturday, three people remained in critical condition.

PHOTOS | Taco Bell destroyed by Winchester tornado

Cooper and Henderson said they are both thankful that they, and those they were working with, somehow made it out safely. But the reality of living through a direct hit from a tornado is still settling in.

“Seeing it all over the news made it more real,” Cooper said.

Besides the store being damaged, multiple vehicles in the parking lot were also destroyed, including Cooper and Henderson’s vehicles. Both were left undriveable with shattered windows and extensive damage.

*Skye Henderson and Aubrey Cooper stand next to their vehicles, which were in the parking lot of the Goodwill in Winchester when the tornados hit.*

The Winchester tornado was just one of at least three tornadoes to hit Indiana on March 14. More than two dozen tornadoes were reported across the country from the storm system, which left at least three people dead in Ohio and multiple others injured.

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