Indiana

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Indiana
Indiana is a small farming and manufacturing state in the Midwest United States. It is the second smallest state on the western side of the Appalachian Mountain Range, with Hawaii being the smallest. Corn is one of Indiana’s primary crops and steel mills and oil refineries are the main manufactured products. Indianapolis is the largest city, the state capital, and center of manufacturing. Although the state is small, it is filled with beautiful landscapes, lakes and streams, rolling hills and caves.

Tornado Map

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Tornados
Tornados, or twisters, are the most violent storms that occur in nature. They are made up of air columns that rotate under a thundercloud at speeds exceeding 300 miles per hour. When tornados are extremely fierce, they can destroy everything that lies in their path, however, in most cases they are weak and cause minor damage. Tornados are most common in the United States in a portion of the country referred to as Tornado Alley. This large belt reaches across most of the states in the Midwest as well as in the south (see map). It is most common for tornados to occur between the afternoon and late evening during the spring and early summer months.

Wheelchairs
There are many people who live without the use of their legs due either to birth defects or accidents, but because of the wheelchair, their quality of life can be good. The first wheelchair, called the “invalid’s chair” was developed 400 years ago for Phillip II of Spain. In 1932 Harry Jennings built the first modern wheelchair for Herbert Everest, a paraplegic friend (paralyzed from the waist down). The company that formed, Everest and Jennings, became the leading producer of wheelchairs.

Wheelchairs can come in every size. Just as a baby learns to walk at a young age, a physically challenged child learns how to maneuver in a wheelchair. A manual wheelchair functions by arm strength pushing the wheels forward to propel the chair. In some cases where the operator is weak, has little arm strength, or is quadriplegic (paralyzed from the neck down), the wheelchair functions electrically with a control on either the arm of the chair or by the mouth of the operator.

Indiana