Indiana toddler found after tornado dies

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- An Indiana toddler found in a field after violent tornadoes died Sunday after being taken off life support, ending a hopeful tale for survivors in the Midwest and South picking through the storms' devastation.

Fifteen-month-old Angel Babcock of New Pekin, Ind., was found after her family's mobile home was destroyed in Friday's storms. Her father, mother and two siblings were killed.

When Angel arrived at Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville Friday night, she was opening her eyes -- a hopeful sign, chief nursing officer Cis Gruebbel said.

Things turned on Saturday, when the swelling in her brain didn't decrease, he said. As the day went on, her eyes ceased to move and she continued to deteriorate. There was no sign of brain activity.

Medical staff told the family there wasn't anything more they could do. With extended family gathered to say goodbye, the family made the decision to end life support Sunday.

Her death brings the toll from the storms to 39 across five states. Rescuers were still going door-to-door in rural areas.

Across the region, people gathered Sunday to worship, comb debris and learn what happened to loved ones and friends, often without modern technology to help. Cellphone signals were hard to find, Internet was out and electricity indefinitely interrupted.

"It's horrible. It's things you take for granted that aren't there anymore," said Jack Cleveland, 50, a Census Bureau worker from Henryville, Ind.

Randy Mattingly, a 24-year-old mechanic, said he and his Henryville neighbors passed on information by word-of-mouth to make sure people were OK: "It was like, 'Hey, did you talk to this guy?' "

At Sunday's Mass at St. Francis Catholic Church in Henryville, Ind., the Rev. Steve Schaftlein turned the church into an information exchange, asking the 100 or so in attendance to stand up and share what they knew.

Lisa Smith, who has been Henryville's postmaster for six weeks, told people that they could pick up their mail in Scottsburg, about 10 miles north.

A local insurance agent, Lyn Murphy-Carter, shared another story. The founder of her agency, 84-year-old Tom Murphy, had told her always to keep paper records. That proved valuable without access to computers. She collected about 1,000 claims Saturday alone, and was gathering handwritten claims from policyholders at church.

While it could be days before power and cell service are fully restored to the damaged areas, crews were making progress Sunday. In Indiana, about 2,800 homes were without power, down from 8,000 in the hours after the storms. But in some hard-hit areas, like Henryville, a substation and transmission lines need to be rebuilt, and that could take up to a week.

Almost 19,000 customers were without power in Kentucky, according to the state's Public Service Commission, and a few thousand more from municipal utilities and the Tennessee Valley Authority.