County Hit Hard By Storm; Mentone Bears Brunt
May 23, 2019 at 11:55 p.m.
County Hit Hard By Storm; Mentone Bears Brunt
By David [email protected]
Warsaw, Wawasee and Tippecanoe Valley school corporations all closed Thursday after an initial two-hour delay due to power outages. Indiana Department of Education granted waivers to the three school districts, and the final day of school for Valley and Warsaw is today. Wawasee will not have an eLearning day Saturday.
The county, along with the city of Warsaw and town of Winona Lake, closed offices except for essential personnel.
Most traffic lights downtown Warsaw were without power for almost eight hours, as well as many businesses. Traffic signals were functioning again around 12:30 p.m.
At its peak, approximately 35,000 NIPSCO electric customers were affected, with the hardest hit areas in Elkhart, Kosciusko, LaGrange and Newton counties, according to a NIPSCO news release. That number dwindled as the day progressed.
Powell Tire Co. in Burket was told it might not get power back until today. Employees in the mechanic shop were working on vehicles by sunlight and flashlight Thursday.
Kosciusko REMC reported members began losing power at 4:40 a.m.
At that time KREMC dispatched their line crews in full force to begin work to restore power to over 9,500 members, a news release from KREMC stated. By 8:30 a.m. Thursday, 3,000 members had their power back, and another 2,200 got their power back by 4 p.m.
The primary reason for outages, however, was out of KREMC’s hands. The outage is occurring at the source, leaving eight of KREMC’s 17 substations without power.
“We are unable to give an estimated time for restoration to our members presently,” said Bruce Goslee, president and CEO of KREMC. “There is just no telling when transmission lines will be up and running again.”
KREMC advised their members to prepare for an extended outage.
Jennifer Barger, KREMC manager of marketing and communications, said the company requested assistance from crews from cooperatives in the area to expediate the work. Northeastern, Miami Cass, Heartland and Jay County REMCs answered the call, sending 12 linemen to work toward restoration alongside KREMC crews.
It was hoped that power would be back before dark Thursday night, but Barger said that couldn’t be assured.
Chris Roller, meteorologist with the National Weather Syracuse in North Webster, said a long squall line – with reported winds of 60 to 70 mph – came through the area. In some places, wind speeds were reported as exceeding 70 mph.
High winds were evident in several locations, including Winona Lake and Mentone.
Several residents in Mentone reported hearing a train-like sound, often associated with tornados, with the storm.
Roller said with winds that strong, it can be pretty loud – like a train – but the sound doesn’t mean there was a tornado.
“We received a number of reports of damage over a widespread area. Powerlines were down on houses, cars and roads,” Roller said.
When the NWS gets such reports, he said it wants to know what the damage looked like. By late morning Thursday, he said the reports they’d received by then indicated the damage was caused by straight-line winds because of the way the trees fell. When a tornado causes damage, it sucks the damage into it and a rotation can be seen in the aftermath.
“We generally don’t get this strong of a wind up here. Generally they’re in the 50s (mph). That’s why this storm sounded and looked so different,” Roller said.
Mentone Town Marshal Jim Eads said he counted 12 trees that were down. “That was just what blocked the roads. It’s not counting what would have fallen in the center of a block on somebody’s property,” he said.
Late Thursday morning, there were some trees still blocking roads in town, but those had power lines in them. Eads said until NIPSCO arrived and removed the power lines, the town wasn’t going to mess with removing those trees from the streets. The streets were blocked until the power lines and trees were removed.
He said about five cars in town were crushed by fallen trees, and some houses had damage.
“We haven’t had any reports of injuries ... out of this,” Eads said.
He said the storm didn’t wake him up because he received the early warning from Central Dispatch. “They did the all-call through the fire department, so we got up on that and looked at the radar,” he said.
Thursday was the first time he ever heard the “freight train sound coming with it,” Eads said. “Out of all the years we’ve ever had the storms come through, I’ve never heard the freight train sound and it was definitely with this one,” he said.
There was no damage in Mentone that manpower, time and chain saws wouldn’t fix, he said. “We’re just fortunate that it didn’t get a house that was occupied. We had one that took the front room of a house, but she passed away in April and wasn’t living there anymore,” Eads said.
Greg Brazo, Broadway Street, Mentone, had a tree down in his front yard and half a tree and a power line down in the back. He said the tree just “grazed” his house, hitting siding and a gutter.
Morgan Brazo said she was dead asleep but the crack of the tree snapping woke her up and scared her.
After it woke Shannon Brazo up, she said the storm sounded like a train was going through.
Randy Hekton, the Brazos’ neighbor, had half a tree come down on his property. He was working third shift when the storm came through so luckily his truck wasn’t where it normally is parked because it would have been hit.
Bob Carr on Tucker Street had an evergreen tree leaning against his house, ready to fall at any time. He wasn’t sure of a safe way to remove it. Even the roots of the Evergreen were torn out.
Tucker Street resident Tim Bradley had a Nissan and BMW damaged by fallen trees. His mother-in-law’s Nissan also was damaged. There was damage to the back of a neighbor’s house and car, and the shop Bradley works in had damage in the back yard. He started chain sawing around 7 a.m., with his son Micah helping soon after.
“It was just high winds,” Bradley said. “It didn’t get me out of bed for concern.”
His background includes working as a catastrophe insurance claims adjuster – or as he called it, “a storm chaser for insurance companies.” Thursday’s storm didn’t drag him out of bed like a tornado would have.
“This would be a major devastation for a town this small,” Bradley said. Mentone’s population was 970 as of July 1, 2018, according to U.S. Census figures.
Gary and Tabitha Syndram, Franklin Street, had a 2006 Dodge Charger smashed by a tree. “I loved that car. It’s done now, but it’ll still start up,” Gary said.
Melissa Bullington, Walnut Street, also lost a car – a Hyundai Tucson – after a big tree fell on it. “If (the tree) would have went the other way, it would have hit our house,” she said.
This weekend there are more chances for showers and storms, Roller said. On Friday, west of I-69 and south of Michigan, a storm system could surface, especially near Lake Michigan, but it’s marginal. A slight risk for a storm is Saturday west of Ind. 15.
“There are chances of severe thunderstorms this weekend. With the warm weather, keep an eye out for storms,” he said.
Warsaw, Wawasee and Tippecanoe Valley school corporations all closed Thursday after an initial two-hour delay due to power outages. Indiana Department of Education granted waivers to the three school districts, and the final day of school for Valley and Warsaw is today. Wawasee will not have an eLearning day Saturday.
The county, along with the city of Warsaw and town of Winona Lake, closed offices except for essential personnel.
Most traffic lights downtown Warsaw were without power for almost eight hours, as well as many businesses. Traffic signals were functioning again around 12:30 p.m.
At its peak, approximately 35,000 NIPSCO electric customers were affected, with the hardest hit areas in Elkhart, Kosciusko, LaGrange and Newton counties, according to a NIPSCO news release. That number dwindled as the day progressed.
Powell Tire Co. in Burket was told it might not get power back until today. Employees in the mechanic shop were working on vehicles by sunlight and flashlight Thursday.
Kosciusko REMC reported members began losing power at 4:40 a.m.
At that time KREMC dispatched their line crews in full force to begin work to restore power to over 9,500 members, a news release from KREMC stated. By 8:30 a.m. Thursday, 3,000 members had their power back, and another 2,200 got their power back by 4 p.m.
The primary reason for outages, however, was out of KREMC’s hands. The outage is occurring at the source, leaving eight of KREMC’s 17 substations without power.
“We are unable to give an estimated time for restoration to our members presently,” said Bruce Goslee, president and CEO of KREMC. “There is just no telling when transmission lines will be up and running again.”
KREMC advised their members to prepare for an extended outage.
Jennifer Barger, KREMC manager of marketing and communications, said the company requested assistance from crews from cooperatives in the area to expediate the work. Northeastern, Miami Cass, Heartland and Jay County REMCs answered the call, sending 12 linemen to work toward restoration alongside KREMC crews.
It was hoped that power would be back before dark Thursday night, but Barger said that couldn’t be assured.
Chris Roller, meteorologist with the National Weather Syracuse in North Webster, said a long squall line – with reported winds of 60 to 70 mph – came through the area. In some places, wind speeds were reported as exceeding 70 mph.
High winds were evident in several locations, including Winona Lake and Mentone.
Several residents in Mentone reported hearing a train-like sound, often associated with tornados, with the storm.
Roller said with winds that strong, it can be pretty loud – like a train – but the sound doesn’t mean there was a tornado.
“We received a number of reports of damage over a widespread area. Powerlines were down on houses, cars and roads,” Roller said.
When the NWS gets such reports, he said it wants to know what the damage looked like. By late morning Thursday, he said the reports they’d received by then indicated the damage was caused by straight-line winds because of the way the trees fell. When a tornado causes damage, it sucks the damage into it and a rotation can be seen in the aftermath.
“We generally don’t get this strong of a wind up here. Generally they’re in the 50s (mph). That’s why this storm sounded and looked so different,” Roller said.
Mentone Town Marshal Jim Eads said he counted 12 trees that were down. “That was just what blocked the roads. It’s not counting what would have fallen in the center of a block on somebody’s property,” he said.
Late Thursday morning, there were some trees still blocking roads in town, but those had power lines in them. Eads said until NIPSCO arrived and removed the power lines, the town wasn’t going to mess with removing those trees from the streets. The streets were blocked until the power lines and trees were removed.
He said about five cars in town were crushed by fallen trees, and some houses had damage.
“We haven’t had any reports of injuries ... out of this,” Eads said.
He said the storm didn’t wake him up because he received the early warning from Central Dispatch. “They did the all-call through the fire department, so we got up on that and looked at the radar,” he said.
Thursday was the first time he ever heard the “freight train sound coming with it,” Eads said. “Out of all the years we’ve ever had the storms come through, I’ve never heard the freight train sound and it was definitely with this one,” he said.
There was no damage in Mentone that manpower, time and chain saws wouldn’t fix, he said. “We’re just fortunate that it didn’t get a house that was occupied. We had one that took the front room of a house, but she passed away in April and wasn’t living there anymore,” Eads said.
Greg Brazo, Broadway Street, Mentone, had a tree down in his front yard and half a tree and a power line down in the back. He said the tree just “grazed” his house, hitting siding and a gutter.
Morgan Brazo said she was dead asleep but the crack of the tree snapping woke her up and scared her.
After it woke Shannon Brazo up, she said the storm sounded like a train was going through.
Randy Hekton, the Brazos’ neighbor, had half a tree come down on his property. He was working third shift when the storm came through so luckily his truck wasn’t where it normally is parked because it would have been hit.
Bob Carr on Tucker Street had an evergreen tree leaning against his house, ready to fall at any time. He wasn’t sure of a safe way to remove it. Even the roots of the Evergreen were torn out.
Tucker Street resident Tim Bradley had a Nissan and BMW damaged by fallen trees. His mother-in-law’s Nissan also was damaged. There was damage to the back of a neighbor’s house and car, and the shop Bradley works in had damage in the back yard. He started chain sawing around 7 a.m., with his son Micah helping soon after.
“It was just high winds,” Bradley said. “It didn’t get me out of bed for concern.”
His background includes working as a catastrophe insurance claims adjuster – or as he called it, “a storm chaser for insurance companies.” Thursday’s storm didn’t drag him out of bed like a tornado would have.
“This would be a major devastation for a town this small,” Bradley said. Mentone’s population was 970 as of July 1, 2018, according to U.S. Census figures.
Gary and Tabitha Syndram, Franklin Street, had a 2006 Dodge Charger smashed by a tree. “I loved that car. It’s done now, but it’ll still start up,” Gary said.
Melissa Bullington, Walnut Street, also lost a car – a Hyundai Tucson – after a big tree fell on it. “If (the tree) would have went the other way, it would have hit our house,” she said.
This weekend there are more chances for showers and storms, Roller said. On Friday, west of I-69 and south of Michigan, a storm system could surface, especially near Lake Michigan, but it’s marginal. A slight risk for a storm is Saturday west of Ind. 15.
“There are chances of severe thunderstorms this weekend. With the warm weather, keep an eye out for storms,” he said.
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