78-mph winds pound city, county

Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Bill Steele, 65, Greencastle, surveys the damage to his camper on Moore Court, that was struck by what appeared to be metal siding during Tuesday night's severe weather. "Nobody is hurt," Steele said, relieved. "This stuff is all replaceable."

Flooding, flying debris, downed trees and power lines accompanied the rain, snow and nearly 80-mph winds Tuesday night, leaving severe property damage and sporadic power outages but no reported injuries.

Severe thunderstorms, accompanied by a tornado warning, struck Putnam County at 7 p.m., and by 8:30 the temperature had plummeted nearly 30 degrees as emergency responders fanned out across the county clearing roadways and surveying damage.

"Most of the damage is in the northwest area of Greencastle," said Police Chief Tom Sutherlin, who was at the scene of both flooding and significant property damage in Greencastle's Moore Court.

Two adults and two children escaped from this Greencastle home unharmed Tuesday evening after nearly 80 mile-per-hour winds sent large debris smashing into the side of the house.

He reported that emergency personnel had been dispatched to clean up downed trees on Indiana and Arlington Streets, and a utility pole down on Poplar Street.

Though Sutherlin was standing amidst sheets of twisted metal that were lodged in treetops as high as 40 feet above the ground, he said Moore Court had escaped the worst damage, which was reported on West Walnut Street.

Fire officials on scene at a house across the street from the entrance to the DePauw University Nature Park fought blistering wind and sleet as they sifted through what was once Roy York's garage.

Though equipment and appliances were still standing on a cement floor place, the entire structure of the garage was gone, along with the York's front porch. Just down the road, a barn with horses in it was destroyed at Wilson's quarter horse farm. At the time, fire officials did not report any injuries to the owners or their horses.

Greencastle Fire Chief Bill Newgent said that his crews were dispatched on multiple runs ranging from downed trees and power lines to the most severe property damage.

Department of Public Works Director Paul Willson clears floodwaters on Shadowlawn Avenue in Greencastle that rose as high as 2 feet before receding.

"There are no reported injuries at this point," Newgent said who added that Emergency Management Services was helping to coordinate local responders.

"We won't have an accurate damage estimate until day break."

Fire officials also reported roof damage at Black Lumber and window damage to Neal Tire.

Though both police and fire officials said it was too early to comment on speculation that a tornado had struck parts of Putnam County, a wind shear of 78 mph was recorded by weather-gathering equipment at the Putnam County Courthouse.

Tornado sirens were activated in northeast Putnam County including Fillmore, Heritage Lake and Roachdale.

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  • I live right across the York's with no trees around my house to break the wind. It got pretty scary around here!

    -- Posted by Sunflowermel on Wed, Jan 30, 2008, at 6:13 AM
  • Why didn't Greencastle have the warning sirens on last night?

    -- Posted by WONDER on Wed, Jan 30, 2008, at 1:48 PM
  • I am really thinking I was in the middle of a tornado last night. Looking around at some of the debris on West Walnut, it was almost like something came through in a straight line and jumped over the northwest edge of downtown and headed down Shadowlawn. Living trees...not dead trees were uprooted and buildings blown completely away. Then on the same route, there are houses gone untouched - plastic lawn furniture not even blown about.

    -- Posted by Sunflowermel on Wed, Jan 30, 2008, at 3:44 PM
  • The sirens were not activated because there was no warning issued by the NWS. If you had a a storm alert radio you would get watches and warnings faster than the media can put the info out. Check out the weather radios at our radio shack !

    -- Posted by Blue6 on Wed, Jan 30, 2008, at 5:59 PM
  • how scary! hope you all are ok there tonight. just saw the watches and warnings on Weather Channel.

    -- Posted by ksarmywife on Tue, Feb 5, 2008, at 9:12 PM
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