Storm hammers Daviess County

Jul. 26—An unexpectedly slow-moving thunderstorm Sunday evening left a mess in Daviess County. Officials report the storm dropped massive amounts of rain, along with lightning and high winds.

"We got a severe thunderstorm with damaging winds. We had a local weather station clock a 60 mile per hour wind. We had about six inches of rain and the rain was coming at about the same time as the 60 mile per hour wind so it blew it sideways," said Daviess County Emergency Management Director Scott Myers. "We might have had even more rain because it was raining sideways at time and there may have been more precipitation than what landed in the rain gauges."

While the National Weather Service had predicted the storm, officials did not anticipate it parking over Daviess County.

"This is your typical summertime pattern where you get these systems that develop upstream overnight and then they move south. They kept moving and hit some unstable air, which is what happened Sunday with the heat, and created thunderstorms," said NWS Meteorologist Sam Lashley. "In summer, the upper-level winds are not real strong, so when these storms get going they move very slowly over the same areas over and over again. That gives you very prolific rain storms."

With the heavy rain, one of the biggest problems resulting from the storm was flash flooding that left a number of motorists stranded.

"We had a lot of flash flooding, a lot of county roads were getting flooded, even the highways — Business 50 and SR 57— they were getting flooded," said Myers. "The area around Jones and Sons and Casey's was flooded. We had a vehicle get in the ditch there because they couldn't see where the ditch was because of all the water. We had people driving into standing water repeatedly in the city Sunday night on West Main and Second Street and Third Street. They just kept driving into it and stalled."

There were more problems than just the flooding too.

"There was a barn south of Plainville on Division Line Road that got damaged," said Myers. "It appears that lightning hit it. It was difficult for the crews to get out and clean up the downed trees and limbs with all of the lightning going on."

Authorities report no injuries as a result of the storm, but the area may not be out of the weather woods yet. More rain is in the forecast and the initial call is for one or two inches with each rain event, but that could change.

"We have a flood watch in effect because we could have a similar situation where these slow-moving thunderstorms set up over the same area again," said Lashley. "We have chances for storms through the week and into the weekend. It is going to be a stormy pattern."

The continuing rain sets up another problem for area residents.

"We want people to be aware of the possibility of more rain and if you live in flood prone areas, with the saturated ground, it is not going to take much rain at all to create dangerous flooding conditions," said Lashley. "It only takes six inches of moving water to float even trucks and SUVs. Especially down in southern Indiana where there is a lot of terrain and hilly areas, dry culverts and ditches can fill and overflow very quickly. We encourage people, turn around. Don't drown."