Storms with hail, heavy rain roll through area - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Hail, over quarter-size, fell hard and fast over downtown just after dinner Friday, and brought downed trees for dessert.

"It made it really hard to see, I was terrified," a motorist told us as they headed downtown for a concert.

That hail bounced off our tower-based camera at our downtown studios. The wind made it hard to push a door open to the outside - if you wanted to go outside.

Then came the rain. At Keystone and Fall Creek Parkway, it started gathering fast in the street until the outside lane flooded in front of the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

And south of 38th Street, more high water closed the right southbound lane.

That was the case at other busy intersections downtown, including 16th and Meridian. High water slowed traffic there during and after the storm.

And on North Street between Penn and Meridian, the westbound lanes both flooded to the sidewalk. Cars had to pass in the wrong lanes.

But it was the intense hail that motorists talked most about. "We had to stay under an overpass it was hailing so bad. Just didn't seem like it was going to end any time soon."

EARLIER STORY

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A storm packing hail and winds of about 60 miles an hour moved through central Indiana and knocked out power to several thousand homes and businesses.
 
The National Weather Service says quarter-sized hail was reported in Marion, Hancock and Hendricks counties and golf-ball sized hail was reported in Cumberland, 10 miles east of Indianapolis. The weather service says winds knocked down limbs in some areas and 1.5 inches of rain fell in Speedway on the west side of Indianapolis in a little over an hour Friday night.
 
Indianapolis Power and Light reported as of 8:30 p.m. Friday more than 4,500 customers in the Indianapolis area were without power.

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