Damage reports continue to come in

Wednesday, February 6, 2008
The entire top half of David and Shirley Ferrand's dairy barn on U.S. 231 North, south of Brick Chapel, is gone.

Damage reports are continuing to come in from a major February storm that ripped through Putnam County Tuesday night.

Winds in excess of 80 mph left a path of destruction from the west-central part of the county to the northeast corner at Bainbridge and Roachdale.

The roof is gone from the Bainbridge Fire Station and a historic barn across the road is completely leveled.

Westward on U.S. 36, wind tossed vehicles at Detro Trailer Sales like toys, causing a small mobile home to roll across U.S. 231 and come to rest in a ditch.

Damage is heavy at Bainbridge where the fire department lost its roof and a century-old barn was leveled nearby.

South of there, the Ferrand family barn was nearly destroyed when winds blew the roof completely off the barn. Family members said the barn once housed dairy operations. The hay mow was completely open to the elements after the storm and bales of straw littered the area.

Parts of the roof from the nearby Bainbridge Fire Station hang in a tree just to the east of the firehouse.

To the north, the storm wasn't kind to Fred Cox who runs a trucking company and small cattle operation from his farm on CR 500 North, about a mile west of Somerset Church.

He took shelter with his family as the winds tore off the roof and walls of his century-old barn that has served his family since the 1940s.

"In three minutes, it was all over," he said. "It shook the house pretty good."

Cox and his neighbors were surveying the damage Wednesday morning as a gray sky opened up and drenched the crumpled barn with more rain. Cox said the assessor came out and told him the barn was a total loss.

To the west of the Cox farm, a carport was blown on its side and metal was ripped from several homes in the Van Bibber Lake area.

Trailer belonging to Detro Trailer Sales at U.S. 36 and U.S. 231 that rolled across the highway during Tuesday night's storm.

Further west, Pingleton Saw Mill saw the tin roofs lifted off several building and a few trees and tree limbs down.

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Power outages

The storm knocked out power to numerous residents across the county.

The primary provider for the northern part of Putnam County, Parke County REMC reported power outages in the communities of Russellville, Roachdale, Morton, Bainbridge, Greencastle and Reelsville.

The roof of the Bainbridge Volunteer Fire Department was blown off and hanging in a large tree just outside the photo.

The company identified nearly 8,000 outages when the storm first rolled through the area late Tuesday night. As of noon Wednesday, only 500 locations were still without power.

General manager Bob McCullough said the company has called in extra crews from Warren County REMC, Tipmont and Rockville to assist in the clean-up effort.

Parke Professional Services employees have been assigned the task of removing fallen tree limbs.

"The goal is to have the majority of the remaining outages restored by midnight tonight," McCullough said. "We would like to thank everyone for their patience during this storm and always remember, if you see a downed power line, assume it is hot and stay away from it."

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