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Thousands remain without power after central Indiana storms

Thousands of Indianapolis residents remain without power Tuesday afternoon after early morning storms, and they may not have power restored until tomorrow, according to Indianapolis Power and Light.
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Thousands across Indiana and here in Indianapolis are sweating out the heat without power Tuesday after storms caused widespread outages.

It's been a busy day and night for IPL work crews, who have been out turning on the lights for 2,100 customers - a big improvement since Tuesday morning.

Crews labored all morning and all day, trying to restore power to 20,000 customers scattered across the city, including 400 homes in one Washington Township neighborhood.

"Wonderful. They are the first crews I've seen all day long," said homeowner Dale Herrick.

Six-hundred families and businesses were in the dark near downtown.

"We hope the power outage and the people get that done pretty soon, because I am going to lose a lot of food in my freezer," said homeowner Stan Brouadus.

The storm swept through the Indianapolis metro area around 2 a.m. Tuesday, bringing driving rain, lightning and 70 mile per hour winds. Trees came crashing down in one Lebanon neighborhood. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

"I heard the wind and I heard it rain pretty hard, then 'Crash!' and I heard glass tinkling," said Lebanon resident Sandy Yarger.

To the west, winds flattened a small building in Avon. In Greenwood, they shattered the windows of a strip mall store. All morning, drivers had to negotiate intersections without working traffic lights.

Two people died in northern Indiana and dozens of homes, businesses and cars were damaged in the Indianapolis area.

A young man died when a tree fell on a trailer home in Winona Lake, about 40 miles northwest of Fort Wayne. A tree also fell on a house at Big Long Lake in LaGrange County, killing a 64 year-old.

The storm also left more than 140,000 homes and businesses in the dark. Work is underway right now to turn the power back on.

By midday, repair crews had cut the number of powerless customers in half. The lights came on only after a convenience store at 30th and College had already lost its rush hour and lunchtime business.

"I don't know how exactly how much it cost, but it cost us some money," said store manager Issa Tahirou. "We lose big. Big."

It will be a dark night for some homeowners, as repair crews expect to work into the night and through Wednesday to restore power to everyone.

Check outages here.

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