Indiana governor declares state of emergency for Lake County, other areas slammed by severe storms

LAKE COUNTY, Ind. (WLS) -- The governor of Indiana has declared a state of emergency for 18 counties recently slammed by strong storms.

The Chicago area's Lake County, Indiana is among the counties listed in Gov. Mike Braun's disaster declaration.

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"Due to flooding, storm, and tornado damage, I am declaring a state of disaster emergency in Bartholomew, Brown, Clark, Crawford, Dearborn, Delaware, Gibson, Hamilton, Harrison, Lake, Madison, Marshall, Martin, Owen, Perry, Posey, Spencer, and Warrick counties. This is effective for 30 days and allows the Indiana Department of Homeland Security to begin providing financial assistance to impacted communities who have eligible expenses under the State Disaster Relief Fund program," Braun said. "It is my hope that this step enables residents, businesses, and local government to access needed resources and assistance as they assess and recover from these devastating weather events."

This comes after multiple rounds of severe storms hit parts of Indiana recently, downing trees and damaging homes.

In Valparaiso, Indiana, one person was killed when "severe crosswinds" blew a tractor and a trailer onto their sides on Sunday, March 30, according to local authorities.

Days earlier, the National Weather Service confirmed that an EF1 and two EF0 tornadoes touched down in Gary, Indiana on Wednesday, March 19. An EF0 tornado affected parts of Highland, Indiana, NWS said.

The video in the player above is from a previous report.