Storms cause widespread power outages, damage in central Indiana - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Severe thunderstorms triggered warnings across central and northern Indiana Friday afternoon. Widespread power outages and tree damage were reported.

As of 6:00 pm Friday, over 150,000 homes were without power across the state. More than a million power outages across the Midwest were attributed to the storm. 

Duke Energy reported nearly 12,000 power outages across several counties due to the storms at 10:30 p.m., down from 50,000 around 6 p.m. See updates here.

IPL was reporting around 5,300 customers without power as of 12:30 a.m. Saturday. That number is down from as many as 15,000 customers without power earlier in the evening. See outages here.

The storms have caused damage to trees in Howard, Hamilton, Tipton and Delaware Counties.

The storm left malfunctioning traffic lights near Tipton and many trees down, including one in the front yard of a home in Hartford City.

"The wind just picked up all at once, you heard a crackle noise, then bam," said the homeowner.

So many streets were closed, it took the woman an hour to drive home from work, nearly twice as long as usual.

"Extremely dark and that wind? I don't think I've ever seen straight-line winds come across a field like that," said one man.

An intense wind pulled a 70-year-old tool shed off the man's barn and hurled it onto power lines near a road near Gaston.

"No one was hurt. I mean, the barn can be replaced. If someone had been coming through there right then, it could have been serious. Real serious," he said.

Most of the damage was because of the wind.

"It was blowing real hard. I've never seen it blow that hard," another man said.

North of I-70 up to an inch of rain fell Friday afternoon. Despite the rain, burn bans remain in effect for much of the state.

There was no rain at the National Weather Service office in Indianapolis, so our streak of day with no measurable rain now stands at 25 days. Unless we get .32" of rain Saturday this will go in the record book as the driest June ever.

See a slide show of storm damage.

See all watches and warnings here.

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