Wind causes roof damage, gas leak

Blustery winds left as many as 630 county residents without power Wednesday afternoon and evening and caused a gas leak at Wal-Mart Supercenter that led to the evacuation of customers.

High winds overturned a heating unit, rupturing a gas line on the roof at Wal-Mart and forcing the evacuation of the store, officials said. Vectren employees shut off the main gas line into the store while isolating the problem and the store was later re-opened.

Lt. Doug Stickles of Seymour Fire Department said the store also sustained roof damage in its home and garden area.

Power outages were reported in the Seymour, Brownstown, Medora and Vallonia areas.

According to Duke's Web site at http://www.duke-energy.com/Indiana/outages/current.asp, power had been restored to all county residents by late Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, Seymour police were keeping watch on a utility pole problem in the area of Kasting Road and McDonald Street, and a window was reportedly blown out of a business in the 200 block of South Chestnut Street.

In addition, the East Fork of the White River was on the rise again. National Weather Service observer Ruth Everhart reported at about 7:30 p.m. the river at Rockford was at 12:43 feet and rising. She said .58 inches of rain had fallen.

Across the rest of the state, The Associated Press reported that winds of 60 mph or more whipped through Indiana on Wednesday, downing power lines and cutting off electricity to tens of thousands of homes and businesses.

Duke Energy reported more than 32,000 outages Wednesday night, with more than 7,000 of those in southern Indiana's Clark County.

Duke spokeswoman Angeline Protogere said the bulk of the outages were caused by wind knocking branches into power lines or tearing down the lines.

About 10,000 Vectren customers in southwestern Indiana were without power Wednesday afternoon, said spokeswoman Chase Kelley, but only about 3,000 outages remained later that night.

Scattered outages also were reported in Indianapolis, and more than 2,000 outages were reported in suburban Hamilton County.
Outages weren't the only trouble caused by the windy weather.

Delaware County Emergency Management Director William Gosnell blamed a small tornado for damage near Muncie, where the roof was ripped off a barn and a nearby home's roof was damaged. No injuries were reported.

The National Weather Service was unable to confirm a tornado. Meteorologist Ashley Brooks said the agency hadn't ruled out a tornado, but had yet to review the evidence.

A vacant mobile home was blown onto a road about five miles from Lafayette.