LAWRENCE CO. – A strong line of thunderstorms impacted south-central Indiana Friday night into Saturday morning damaging a few homes, taking down trees and powerlines, leaving many without power throughout the weekend.
There were no reports of injuries from the storms.
According to Valarie Luchauer Lawernce County Emergency Management Director, “A tree fell on a home on Maddox Lane, according to a deputy with the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department, also there were widespread downed trees on county roadways along with utility lines,”
Friday night Lawrence County Emergency Management assisted Monroe County Emergency Management officials in evacuating residents of Garden Villa residents in Bloomington to the Garden Villa facility in Bedford with Valarie Luchauer coordinating volunteers in that operation.
Emergency crews, highway departments, and utility companies responded to calls Friday night into Saturday. Most of the roadways were cleared and the power restored on Saturday.
As of Sunday morning, Duke Energy reported more than 580 outages across the state, with 8,100 customers still without power. Officials reported more than 40,000 customers were impacted.
Utilities District of Western Indiana, Daviess-Martin County REMC, Jackson County REMC and Orange County REMC all had power outages with transmission lines owned by Duke Energy impacting their outages. As of Sunday, morning most of their customers’ power was restored, but there were still a few customers still out of power with the hopes of having power restored by Monday morning.
Some of the areas effected included state highways which left travelers having to detour around the damaged areas.
State Road 158 near Purdue Farm Road was closed for several hours when trees fell over the highway, bringing down power lines making it impassable. Members of the Indian Creek Township Volunteer Fire Department responded to help direct traffic around the location until Duke Energy could arrive and repair the damage.
US 50 near Back Creek Road was also closed for several hours, as crews worked to remove downed trees and powerlines.
On Saturday morning, emergency crews responded to a traffic accident on Lower Leesville Road after a vehicle struck a tree that was across the roadway. There is no word on whether anyone was injured in that incident at this time.
Several county roadways in the northeastern part of Lawrence County around Guthrie, Bartlettsville, and Meadows Church Road were closed with downed power lines and trees. Avoca Eureka Road and Patton Hill Road in western Lawrence County also reported trees down Saturday morning.
Due to the widespread amount of damage it took several hours to reach many locations.
Flooding impacted some roadways with water covering the roadway on Guthrie Road Saturday afternoon.
Residents could be found throughout the county assessing damage to their roofs, and cleaning up their yards following the storm’s aftermath.
