Putnam communities dodge bullet in stormy onslaught

Sunday, November 17, 2013
Looking west along Veterans Memorial Highway, near the intersection with Putnamville Street in Greencastle, the approaching Sunday evening storm front presents an eerie scene. However, most of Putnam County escaped without much damage from the severe storm that spawned tornadoes elsewhere.

On the first day of Winter Preparedness Week Sunday, Putnam County residents joined fellow Hoosiers not in worrying about the inevitability of ice and snow but in the reality of battening down the hatches against severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and damaging winds.

Yet despite enduring two separate tornado warnings and a storm front that looked like a scene from the movie "Independence Day" as it approached Greencastle, Putnam County communities came out virtually unscathed Sunday. Especially when compared to what went on all around us in neighboring counties.

"Locally there were various trees down and powerlines dangling all over the area," Capt. Russ Evans, public information officer for the Putnam County Emergency Management Agency (EMA), told the Banner Graphic Sunday evening.

"Compared to what happened around us, we were extremely lucky. I have friends in Kokomo and Muncie, and they were hit hard, and Lebanon took a pretty hard lick.

"Actually, I don't know if 'extremely lucky' covers it," Evans added. "To say it another way, we were fortunate, grateful and blessed."

At least 12 Indiana counties reportedly incurred tornado or wind damage in the storms that made their way into the state about 1:30 p.m.

Southwestern Middle and Grade School in Lafayette sustained severe damage and the roof of an industrial building in Veedersburg was blown off.

Yet in Putnam County, besides trees and power lines, Evans reported a Russellville garage being damaged by a falling tree and a storm-spawned structure fire to which Van Bibber Fire Department responded along County Road 350 North.

Meanwhile, Chris Edwards, Putnam County EMA weather specialist, was out monitoring the storm as it rolled through, and he reported a 58-mph wind gust at the Putnam-Montgomery line, Evans said.

"As the storm crossed Putnam County it seemed to gain strength," Evans observed.

And as it proceeded north and northeast, it subsequently left much more damage in its wake.

Winds intensified, too, as 65-mph gusts were recorded by the National Weather Service in Jamestown, Thorntown, New Ross and Colfax. Telephone poles were torn down at Darlington in Montgomery County and trees and powerlines were snapped around Lafayette.

In addition to the school, several other structures sustained damage around Lafayette, while 80-mph winds were reported down in Bloomington.

"The weather people were predicting this two or three days ago," Evans said, noting that another weather watcher had told him that Sunday's storm had presented the "same set-up Henryville (victim of the devastating March 2, 2012 tornado) had, only it was up here."

Thankfully it didn't produce anywhere near the damage the Henryville area endured.

A large section of one tree did come down in the high winds, tumbling onto a home at the corner of Berry and South Jackson streets.

Meanwhile, at least three people were reported injured from the severe thunderstorms that have swept across Indiana Sunday.

Kokomo spokesman David Tharp says multiple minor injuries occurred there. He did not know how many.

Grant County Emergency Management Director Bruce Bender said one person was injured when two or three mobile homes rolled over at the Summit Village Trailer Park. Four homes have been damaged, including two extensively between Marion and the town of Sweetser.

Early reports of a teacher being injured when a storm heavily damaged Southwestern School in southern Tippecanoe County were later found to be false.

In Kokomo, authorities are asking residents to stay home and off the streets after city officials declared a state of emergency in the wake of severe storms.

Howard County Emergency Management Director Larry Smith said several people were injured at a local mall where a Christmas tree auction was called off shortly before the storms hit.

Meanwhile, an iconic building that has stood on the corner in a historic Indianapolis neighborhood for more than a century was heavily damaged by Sunday's powerful storms.

The former post office in Irvington largely collapsed as bricks from the building littered the intersection and most of the building's walls disintegrated under Mother Nature's assault.

The 1903 structure had not been used as a post office for years and had been slated for demolition in 2012. But members of the Irvington Development Organization arranged to acquire the building and were in the process of raising money to stabilize it in hopes of saving it.

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