Storms rock county late Friday
Jun. 21—DECATUR COUNTY — Residents of Greensburg and surrounding communities were blindsided by unusually high winds and torrential downpours Friday evening and Saturday morning. Two major storm cells moved through the area creating widespread flooding and high wind damage, reminiscent of the tornadoes that swept the area in 2008.
Friday evening, violent winds flattened corn crops, caused major property damage and left many without electricity for up to 12 hours while the torrential downpours accompanying the storm flooded local waterways, causing them to jump their banks.
Utility workers, county highway, and city street departments were busy early Saturday cordoning off flooded and washed out roads in the county while in Greensburg Sand Creek jumped its banks to flood Lincoln Street from Central Avenue to Main Street, cresting high enough to block the Circle K parking lot before dawn Saturday morning.
Multiple power outages were reported in outlying area of the county, REMC reported. According to a press release issue Monday, there were outages across Decatur County REMC's six county service territory, with the first being reported just before 7 p.m. Friday night.
There were 197 different issues related to the inclement weather. To restore service to the 4,179 meters experiencing outages, all four DCREMC crews were deployed including two tree trimming crews that were deployed Saturday morning.
Outages were so extensive, Decatur County REMC was assisted by four crews from other co-ops including a crew from Marshall County REMC, one from Miami-Cass County REMC, and two from Kankakee Valley REMC as well as two retired DCREMC linemen assisting with running out lines, locating issues, and leading crews to affected areas.
Crews worked non-stop until 3 a.m. Saturday when intense lightening and flooding made it unsafe.
All crews were again deployed Saturday morning at 8 a.m. and worked non-stop until midnight, but reported back to work on Father's Day to restore the remaining outages. All power outages were repaired by 10 p.m. Sunday.
"It was a fantastic effort by our entire team. Excellent dispatch and planning, safe and efficient execution by our crews, tremendous communication effort, and wonderful support from our community partners, first-responder agencies, local media, and our members," said DCREMC CEO Brett Aplanalp. "I also want to give a special thanks to the families of our crews who endure major storms and holidays without their loved ones. It takes a strong, special group to do that and we appreciate them!"
Decatur County Emergency Management received multiple calls from citizens who reported seven inches of rain from the two storms.
"We've received several calls from those in low-lying areas and are dealing with those emergencies currently," said Washington Township Trustee Christian Rust.
Rust also commented on reports of water damage in the Lake McCoy area.
"We took pictures of Lake McCoy on Saturday morning from on top of the dam, and the flood waters washed out the road leading to the area. The road wasn't just washed out, it was completely gone," said Rust.
Rust said that plans for repairs in the area would be announced when final assessments of the damage have been received.
Locals will agree that this event might have many similarities to a week of bad weather that ripped through the area in June 2008, when President George W. Bush declared 44 counties major disaster areas including Decatur, Rush, Shelby and Bartholomew, which opened them to federal emergency funding for residents and local agencies.
Greensburg Mayor Josh Marsh said Greensburg received a total of 5.4 inches of rain, as reported by the Wastewater Plant, and there were "minimal" power outages in the city.
About federal aid, Marsh said, "We will pursue all options that are made available by the state and federal government, but that has not been made available to us yet. We'll keep residents updated as we learn more."
Contact Bill Rethlake at 812-663-3111, ext 217011 or email bill.rethlake@greensburgdailynews.com
