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Strong winds leave damage and power outages in several Indiana counties

Gusts up to 70mph reported
Posted at 11:41 PM, Apr 08, 2020
and last updated 2021-10-01 10:59:26-04

Update: The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down in Mooresville Wednesday night.

INDIANAPOLIS — A spring storm blasted its way across the state Wednesday evening, leaving thousands in the dark and some reports of damage.

Tornado watches and warnings were issued and gusts of up to 70 miles-per-hour were recorded.

Emergency management agencies in many counties reported trees and power lines down, some blocking state and county roads.

In Putnam County, the wind was strong enough to blow trailers into the road along U.S. 231.

More than 100,000 customers of Duke Energy and Indianapolis Power and Light lost their electric service during the evening. One of the largest concentrations of Duke outages was in the Carmel-Westfield area of Hamilton County. In Indianapolis, scattered outages were reported in many areas of the city.

As of Thursday morning, more than 60,000 Hoosiers were still without power, including over 45,000 Duke Energy customers and nearly 15,000 IPL customers.

What may be the heaviest damage took place in Morgan County, at the main intersection in downtown Mooresville. There, the second floor of a building gave way, sending bricks and other debris into the street. There were no reports of injuries.

Other buildings in downtown Mooresville were damaged, including one owned by the town council president, who said people who lived there were displaced. Mooresville police said at least four buildings were damaged.

In Johnson County, there was damage to the Johnson County Government East Annex, just down the street from the historic county courthouse.