The night a small hospital faced down an F3 tornado with a little help from friends

WINCHESTER, Ind. — Like most Thursday evenings, the emergency room at Ascension St. Vincent Randolph Hospital was being overseen by a single physician, Scott Ries, on March 14.

As the emergency medicine veteran, Ries was headed into the backend of his 24-hour shift overseeing the usual emergency room issues in a small town.

Then much of the world outside the hospital blew apart.

Cell phone alarms and outdoor sirens began blaring as an F3 tornado reached out of the sky near Ascension and smashed homes and commercial buildings.

The twister had touched down in Selma, about 17 miles west of Winchester in Delaware County, and passed over much of the territory between the two towns before settling on the ground near Winchester and spinning into the town of about 4,800 people. The twister snapped utility poles and destroyed buildings in Winchester.

A Taco Bell, which Ries said was essentially across the street from the hospital, was obliterated by the storm.

A nurse called out, "Dr. Ries!"

"It's rare I hear panic in their voices," Ries said. "There was panic in their voices."

The physician looked up to see about 10 people, all who made it out of where the restaurant had existed. They were bleeding and staggering around the hospital lobby, he said.

That was the word the tornado victims used.

"The Taco Bell exploded," Ries said.

"Exploded."

A church, a Goodwill store and other buildings in a nearby shopping area were also ravaged by the tornado.

Triage begins immediately

Ries assessed the situation and determined those whose lives were in immediate danger — including one patient in danger of bleeding to death. Two of them were critical, he said.

The small hospital had 26 to 30 employees on duty that night, and they started hearing rumors that a nursing home in Winchester had been hit. Most of the rumors turned out to be just that.

But the medical staff had no idea how many people were hurt and needed treatment from the hospital, Ries said. Meanwhile, people outside the hospital heard rumors that the hospital itself had been struck by the tornado that wiped out several buildings in the hospital's neighborhood.

Staff inside Ascension took the ER and other patients already in the hospital to the safest parts of the building.

Shelley Miller, chief administrator for the hospital, left her home a block-and-a-half away and arrived after the tornado warning was issued but before the storm arrived in Winchester. The hospital staff already had patients moved to where they needed to be to ride out the storm. They were given extra pillows to cover their heads in case the building took a direct hit.

Doctors and nurses from all over rush to Ascension

After tornado victims started showing up, other physicians and nurses from the Randolph County community, including those who worked for competitors of Ascension, arrived as well to help. Miller said she gave the order to "call District 6," officially known as Indiana District 6 Medical Task Force.

The Task Force is comprised of medical volunteers and Emergency Medical Service outfits from 13 counties in Indiana, including all of East Central Indiana. The group, according to its Facebook page, stand ready to provide aid at disaster sites anywhere in Indiana and, if needed, across the country.

That one call from Winchester brought 41 different ambulances and crews. Combined with physicians and nurses who came from their homes — some as far away as Fishers — bolstered the small hospital and readied it to handle whatever the weather delivered.

The crews and ambulances transferred patients to larger hospitals, including hospitals in Richmond, Muncie and Dayton, Ohio. Once patients were stabilized in Winchester, the crews were also on hand to provide rescue services for people injured or trapped in wreckage from the twister.

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Ries received calls from emergency rooms across the state, including Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Muncie, Richmond, and others, offering to accept any patients needing to be transferred. That was especially important since the weather had grounded helicopter transport.

There were 38 trauma patients brought to the Winchester hospital's ER the night of the tornado, which is more than the hospital usually sees in 24 hours, Ries explained. Three of those patients were critical. All survived.

"We feel likely 300 to 360 (individuals) responded," said Brenna Ford, public relations senior specialist at Ascension St. Vincent in Indianapolis.

More: State to provide more resources to help tornado victims from Randolph, Delaware counties

Hospital ready to treat 600 patients that night

Thanks to Matt Blankley, Task Force operations manager, enough help showed up at the hospital that 600 patients could have been treated in Ascension's parking lot that night, Miller said. Not yet knowing what laid in the dark after the tornado moved through, such a catastrophe was still thought possible into the early hours of Friday.

"District 6 saved lives," Miller said.

Just by being there to take pressure off those treating the critically injured helped.

In the 8 p.m. hour, Winchester nurse practitioner Samantha Morris was with her husband and three children at Monroe Central Elementary near Parker City, sheltering inside the school's library. Monroe Central is east of Selma on the western edge of Randolph County. She had been watching a boys versus girls basketball game that was serving as a fundraiser for a sixth-grade class.

The storm passed by the school and moved on to Winchester. Morris had heard the storm had done damage in Winchester.

"We had heard the hospital itself might have been hit," she said. "... We are a very close-knit community."

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She and her husband drove toward Winchester after the all clear sounded at the school.

Starting on Ind. 32, they soon discovered the highway was blocked by downed power lines, forcing them to take the back roads to get into the city.

"There were lots of trees down," she said.

Just getting into the place and seeing the destruction along the way seemed unreal.

"It was like something out of a war movie," Morris said.

Once there, seeing all the help and how things were working was a comfort, Morris said.

More: 'Thankful we're alive': Woman describes chaos as likely tornado destroyed Winchester church

"I had no idea what I was going to walk into," Morris said. "I don't think it could have went any smoother than what it did.

"Where do you want me, and what can I do to help," Morris said she and other medical professionals repeated asked as they arrived on scene.

Patients injured in the storm mostly suffered cuts and scrapes or broken bones, and for the most part, the patients were calm, Morris said.

"We had lots and lots of help from the community, who came without notice," she said.

Stacy Lawson, a nurse from Ascension St. Vincent Fishers, watched the reports of the storm and noted its path.

Her husband, Tim Lawson, is from Selma and was a graduate from Wapahani High School. After calling to check on family, who were OK, Lawson called Ascension in Winchester and asked if they needed help.

"They said they were OK but that they wouldn't turn down any help," she said.

Lawson and her husband then made their trek from Fishers to Winchester in the middle of the night just to help, but they couldn't arrive until about 10 p.m.

The disaster plan worked

By 3 a.m. Friday, Ries said, the staff realized the would-be disaster was over and, amazingly, the storm, fierce as it was, had not killed anyone on their watch.

"It was beautiful," said Ries, who wrote his account of the night on Facebook.

The help from the other staff put the event in perspective.

"We talk about having disasters, but this was here and it (the plan) worked!" he wrote on his Facebook post.

Morris also reflected over the evening a tornado hit her town.

"The biggest thing I can say is how wonderful a community I live in," she said. "The number of people who came without being asked ... What a great place to live."

David Penticuff is a reporter with The Star Press. He can be reached at dpenticuff@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Indiana tornado death toll stays at zero as Winchester rallies to help