Saturday storm caused widespread damage
May 23—GREENSBURG — Saturday, May 21, Decatur County experienced thunderstorms across the entire county.
Damage was widespread, but the largest area of damage was in the northwest parts of the county, according to Decatur County EMA Director Brad Speer.
As of Sunday evening, there were still more than 400 Decatur County residents and businesses without electricity.
The National Weather Service was contacted and they will be releasing an official determination of straight line winds of 80 to 95 mph that were experienced in the northwest parts of the county, Speer said.
There was extensive damage to Shelby and Rush counties in the same areas that has been reviewed as well.
On behalf of the Decatur County Emergency Management Agency, Speer thanked the following agencies for assisting at the scene alongside the emergency response and the cleanup process: St. Paul Volunteer Fire Department, St. Paul Volunteer Fire Department Auxiliary, Letts Volunteer Fire Department, Letts EMS, Decatur County EMS, New Point Volunteer Fire Department, St. Paul Police Department, Decatur County Sheriff's Office, Decatur County Communications, Decatur County Highway Department, Duke Electric, Decatur County REMC, and Rush/Shelby REMC.
"As you can see by this list, there were many agencies involved with this response effort and these agencies did a great job under such difficult circumstances," Speer said. "Decatur County EMA would also like to commend the citizens in the affected area as well. The people showed once again why Decatur County is a great place to live and raise your family by assisting neighbors and friends. The patience allowing the emergency agencies the time to do their work and then the assistance provided in the cleanup has been tremendous."
The Decatur County Sheriff's Department reports having received nearly 60 calls related to poles and trees down and other weather-related damage.
The Associated Press reports three tornadoes, one of which toppled a church steeple at the Indiana National Guard's Camp Atterbury, hit parts of central and south-central Indiana Saturday as a wave of severe thunderstorms swept across the state, according to the National Weather Service.
A team from the agency's Indianapolis office conducted storm surveys Sunday and confirmed that two EF-0 tornadoes with winds up to 84 mph touched down Saturday, with the first hitting Brown County's densely wooded South Princes Lakes area about 3:40 p.m., uprooting and damaging trees.
The second EF-0 briefly touched down some 10 minutes later in Johnson County in the Indiana National Guard's Camp Atterbury training area, where a church steeple was blown over and several vehicles were lifted by the winds. That tornado also damaged numerous trees.
The third tornado, an EF-1 with winds of up to 110 mph, was confirmed as touching down around 4 p.m., in Shelby County, where it left a path of toppled or uprooted trees nearly 14 miles in length extending from near Edinburgh to near St. Paul.
Meteorologist Andrew White said Saturday's storms caused no reported injuries.
He said the weather service was still assessing storm damage in Monroe County near the western edge of Lake Monroe to determine if tree damage there was caused by a tornado or straight-line winds.
