Meeting heroes in Indiana

Early Saturday morning, I made my way down to Henryville, Indiana. I wanted to get a formal briefing and a firsthand look at the aftermath of the tornado storm that claimed lives and laid waste to this community and to towns across a six-county area of Indiana.

Driving into Henryville in the squad car of a state police officer who experienced the storm was really something. The trooper told me of watching a police car literally blown off the highway in front of him as the storm approached and how he thought, "this was it."

As you exit the interstate and drive east, you see homes leveled, battered and broken next to schools and businesses shattered by the tornado. Even one week later, the power of this storm is evident everywhere you look.

We joined the fire chief as well as state and local emergency officials at the end of their morning briefing and were informed of the progress and challenges in the cleanup and the rebuilding effort. Many of these first responders have been here since hour one, but the commitment each of them reflected was inspiring.

We made our way to the Henryville High School and walked the grounds with Troy Albert, the principal, whose discerning leadership and decisions in the hour before the storm undoubtedly saved lives. After the storm passed, the principal told me he was able to evacuate the students out of the damaged high school in a driving rain storm because it was as though "someone has cleared a three-foot wide path all the way to the parking lot so we could walk right out."

Some of the damage. 

Before I left the school, where not one child was killed, Troy said, "I'm proud to be a Hoosier, I can tell you that." 

I told him, "Troy, you make me proud to be a Hoosier."

From the school we toured the city, walked amidst the debris and heard the stories of survival but before we left town we stopped at two of the locations where free food, clothing, and supplies had been organized by churches across the region.

The high school football team from Silver Creek was stacking boxes at a makeshift relief center and a little girl was handing fresh coffee and breakfast through a trailer window behind the Baptist church.

Rep. Pence on March 10. 

Even though the hour was early in the day, the parking lot and the relief center were already filling up with volunteers -- and everyone was smiling.

These then are the heroes: local leaders, state officials, public safety personnel, school officials and board members, churches, charities and volunteers, volunteers and more volunteers -- such inspiring men and women.

May God bless the families of the lost and injured, those who are recovering, and every one of the heroes I met in Henryville. They make me proud to be a Hoosier, I can tell you that.

Rep. Pence is a Republican from Indiana.

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