EVANSVILLE, Ind. - It was only a 6-foot-deep retention pond, but for the hundreds of people who lived at the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park, it was a lake, a pleasant diversion from the straight streets, right angles and modular sameness of their community.
On Monday, the little lake on the eastern edge of Evansville provided some of the final stories of survival and death as recovery teams drained the water and raked through the mud and debris in search of victims from a deadly, middle-of-the-night tornado that destroyed the mobile home park and killed at least 22 people over the weekend.
It was the nation's deadliest twister since 1999.
After scouring the land and poking through the rubble, the last place to search Monday was the lake.
The 7-acre lake - specifically the thick, damp muck at the water's edge - probably saved the life 10-year-old Jazmyn Rene Bingman, who was yanked from her bed by the force of Sunday morning's tornado.
"They found her in that pond area," said Ryan Bingman, the girl's grandfather. "She was just covered with mud. The mud probably saved her."
But Bingman said the lake probably claimed the life of Jazmyn's father, Michael Hobert, who was still listed as missing Monday evening, Bingman said. Recovery teams pulled one body from the lake Monday, but an identity had not been confirmed.
Jazmyn's mother, Amy Hobert, was confirmed dead on Sunday. Hobert is Ryan Bingman's daughter.
Officials continued winnowing down a list of missing people who might have been in the mobile home park when the tornado roared through two southern Indiana counties that hug the Ohio River.
The list of people reported missing was six pages long by the end of Sunday, said Vanderburgh County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth. Some people had been reported by loved ones, other names were collected based on the car license plates, Ellsworth said.
But by Monday afternoon, the number of missing dropped to 20, Ellsworth said. "Until we account for every person, we're still concerned about the people missing. "
The tornado packed winds estimated at more than 200 mph. In addition to some 200 people injured, four people - including a pregnant woman - were killed in neighboring Warrick County, east of Evansville.
"It was Mother Nature at her most insidious and sneakiest .. . to come in the middle of the night in November this way," said Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who declared a state of emergency Monday and asked President Bush for federal disaster assistance.
Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman, who toured the damage both by helicopter and on foot Monday, said the devastation south of Evansville looked like "toothpicks littering a field." But Skillman said she was most affected by the debris lying on the ground.
"It's just so tough to explain. You're overwhelmed. It's the remains you see, whether it's a little pink child's hanger or the doll by the car," Skillman said.
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