Storm downs trees, knocks out power
By MARIBETH WARD
Staff Writer
JAMIE BARRAND
Editor
Trees took the hardest hit from storms that blew across Putnam County in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
Power lines also suffered damage, making for a troublesome morning for thousands in Putnam County and surrounding areas.
Weather officials estimated the straight-line winds that hit Greencastle at between 75 and 80 mph. The storm brought back memories of one that hit in February of this year, leaving similar damage.
"Mostly, we had a lot of tree damage from the storm," Putnam County EMA Director Kim Hyten said. "We have confirmed that it was straight-line winds with no tornadic activity. Luckily, there were no injuries reported."
Butler's Propane, located in Greencastle, lost a structure during the violent storm. Tree limbs and leaves blanketed the city streets immediately after the storms passed.
North of town, a tree fully blocked U.S. 231 a mile north of Brick Chapel. Nearby, Shortcut Road was also said to have been almost impassible right after the storm.
Crews worked throughout the day Tuesday to remove trees from city streets in Greencastle.
The area along Washington Street and Bloomington Street saw a lot of damage.
Reports of power outages began coming in to Duke Energy, the county's main power supplier, late on Monday evening, according to the company's Web site (www.duke-energy.com) said.
At the height of the storm, 7,505 Putnam County customers were without power. As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, 1,931 customers were still waiting for power restoration.
Witnesses at the Putnam County Fairgrounds said several chickens were killed as a result of the storm, but operations seemed to continue on a fairly normal basis by later in the day. Water also was a problem.