Storm rumbles through

A severe storm cell rumbled through Jackson County, dumping rain and hail and triggering tornado warnings from the Medora area through Brownstown and Seymour and on into Jennings County to the east Monday afternoon.

No storm damage was reported to Jackson County Sheriff's Department, receptionist Pam Colwell said.

"We had some reports of hail," Colwell said, "ranging in size from a dime to a nickel to a quarter to golf ball. It was really pinging on our skylight."

Light hail about the size of a small green pea and smaller fell in the Seymour area around 4:30 p.m.

In one bulletin, the weather service said a funnel cloud had been spotted within the storm cell south of Medora.

Dean Blackwell, a volunteer certified weather spotter with the Jackson County Emergency Management Agency, said he had heard of no reports of damage or funnel clouds stemming from the storm, however.

"I came in and saw the storm come through and didn't see any funnel clouds or even a wall cloud," Blackwell, who lives in the Wegan area near Brownstown, said around 4:23 p.m.

Wall clouds generally accompany storms that trigger tornadoes, Blackwell said.

Mike Bundy of Bundy Brothers & Sons Inc. in Medora said the storm brought heavy rainfall and some hail stones to that community in southwest Jackson County, one of the first to fall under a tornado watch. No damage was reported in the area, however.

Seymour Community Schools officials held students in their buildings as the first storm sirens sounded in the city around the time students were preparing to load school buses.

Students were released to buses around 4:45 p.m.

Some students at Seymour High School had left the campus off Community Drive before the storm warning triggered the decision to keep students at school, but most students were kept inside the school.

National Weather Service observer Ruth Everhart said the Seymour area received .85 inches of rainfall Monday.

The East Fork of the White River was falling from 10.27 feet at 4 p.m. after cresting at about 13.6 feet over the weekend. Flood stage at Seymour is 12 feet.

"More rain is coming, and if it goes northeast of us, the river could get out again," Everhart said Monday evening.

The National Weather Service said Jackson County remains under a flood warning through today because of more rain that fell Monday.

The warning includes the East Fork of the White River and the Muscatatuck River, including the Wheeler Hollow area.