Strong wind gusts, damage reported from Wednesday’s storms

INDIANAPOLIS – Wednesday’s storms cut a swath of damage across the Hoosier State that extended from east to west and north to south.

As of 7:20 a.m., more than 78,000 power outages were reported statewide, with the bulk of those involving customers from AES Indiana (more than 32,000 outages) and Duke Energy (more than 30,000 outages).

Parts of central Indiana were hit particularly hard, with numerous outages reported south of Indianapolis in areas near Bloomington and Edinburgh.

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Storm reports from the National Weather Service ran the gamut: strong winds knocked over and uprooted large trees, blew down branches and battered power lines across the state.

The storm also brought downpours and hail.

Seymour reported the strongest wind gust at 81 mph. In other areas, wind gusts exceeded 70 mph. Muncie reported a gust of 79 mph northwest of Ball State University. Another gust in nearby Royerton registered at 73 mph.

In Marion County, Indianapolis International Airport recorded a gust of 71 mph, according to NWS data. In Owen County, a 71 mph gust was reported in Gosport.

Some other notable wind gusts, per NWS:

• Tipton: 69 mph
• Brookville: 68 mph
• Mooresville: 67 mph
• Farmersburg: 65 mph
• Cloverdale: 63 mph
• Near Purdue University: 59 mph
• Lebanon: 55 mph
• Southport: 57 mph
• Carmel: 50 mph

While parts of central Indiana were under a tornado warning during parts of the storm, no tornado activity had been confirmed as of 7 a.m. Thursday. Most of the damage, it appeared, came from straight-line winds.

Storm reports began coming in on the western edge of the state around 3:15 p.m. and continued to come in through 6:15 p.m. as the storm worked its way to the east, according to NWS data.