About 25,000 NIPSCO customers were without power this morning because of poles and lines breaking under the strain of high winds and falling tree limbs from Tuesday's storm.

Residents from Center and Jackson streets and Spring Hill Acres in Warsaw, Grace College and Auditorium Drive in Winona Lake, as well as Mentone and North Webster reported outages this morning.

Mentone School was still without power late this morning.

No injuries from the storm were reported.

"We had our repair crews out last night working on damage from the storm, but the high winds this morning have undone those repairs," said NIPSCO community relations representative Tom Kallaway.

Statewide, NIPSCO reported 25,000 customers out of service. Hardest hit was the northwestern area of the state: Hammond, Gary, Valparaiso and Crown Point.

"We are making progress in the Warsaw area," Kallaway said this morning, "but until the wind dies down we can't say when everyone's service will be back up."

REMC reported Mentone as the only large group of customers without service this morning. "The wind blew down tree limbs on a NIPSCO line coming into a Mentone area substation," said Larry Easterday, REMC public relations representative.

The wind also knocked limbs into county roadways, hindering local travel. Calls to the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department reported limbs across Ind. 19 near CR 1300N and CR 150E near CR 1300N.

Gusts of up to 48 mph were reported this morning at WRSW.

No estimate was available for how long local residents would be without power. [[In-content Ad]]