Overnight storms leave thousands in the dark

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Winds whipped, rain fell, and for some, lights flickered from an overnight storm that hit Central Indiana. At one point, more than 2,000 local homes were left in the dark.

Pockets of standing water were left on many area roadways. IMPD dispatch reported several large puddles more than one foot deep on several roads in the southern part of Marion County on South Meridian Road and Bluff Road. But, the biggest problems from the late fall storm seemed to come from tree limbs falling on power lines.

At 2 a.m., at least 1,245 Indianapolis Power and Light customers were in the dark. More than half were on the south side of Marion County. Duke Energy reported 927 without power at that time, centered mostly in Vigo and Monroe Counties.

By 7 a.m., IPL crews had restored power to all but 110 customers. Most of those were scattered single home or neighborhood-wide outages, according to the company’s outage maps.

Scattered reports of minor damage also came from southern Johnson County, where several small trees were uprooted in Franklin and utility poles were reported down in Trafalgar.

The problems came from the same weather system that caused severe damage in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin late Monday.

The National Weather Service reported storms there may have spawned seven tornados. Damaged homes, barns, and sheds were widespread just across the Illinois border in Walroth, Wisconsin, where one woman was trapped inside a barn briefly. Dozens of homes and businesses were also damaged northeast of Rockford, Illinois in the small town of Caledonia. Witnesses there caught a funnel cloud on camera, and reported it to be more than a half-mile wide. It’s blamed for flipping over a school bus with five children inside.

All were taken to a local hospital where they were treated for minor back and neck pain. No one else was hurt.