HENDRICKS COUNTY — Thousands have their power back after an early morning storm left downed trees throughout central Indiana.
Many spent one of the hottest days of the year cleaning up, while others spent it in the dark.
“I heard rumbling of thunder. It sounded like it shook the house,” Patricia Reynolds said.
Reynolds is a Hendricks County resident. She says it was quite the Friday morning for her.
She says she woke up to the sound of a mix of rain, wind, thunder and lightning.
“I saw the nightlight go off in the bathroom, and I said, ‘We have no lights.’ That’s how I woke up,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds neighborhood was filled with debris and downed transformers. Crews from Duke Energy spent the day working to restore power.
“If you go look at it right now, there’s a big burn. It could have been on fire when it hit the house. It could have been a lot worse,” Cyndi Westfall said.
Westfall lives a few doors down from Reynolds. She says she also woke up to the sound of the loud storms.
“Horrific wind, lightning, thunder, all of it,” Westfall said.
She believes that one of her trees was struck by lightning. Part of the tree charred, the other part — On top of her roof.
“I’m just lucky,” Westfall said.
Westfall and Reynolds weren’t the only ones in the neighborhood dealing with storm damage.
A tree fell on a man’s truck, while his American flag is on his roof. Others have toppled trees in their front yards and power lines are in the streets.
Friday morning’s storm didn’t just impact Hendricks County.
The Carmel Fire Department responded to downed trees near 106th and College.
Westfall says most of her neighbors were left without power for hours.
“We can’t flush our toilet. We can’t use anything like that. There’s no electricity. We can’t even use the machine in the house that we use for bottled water,” Westfall said.
Westfall says Friday is all about perspective as she tries to make light of the situation.
“You have to rely on the fact that these things happen, and a lot worse things can happen in this world. This is not the worst thing to happen,” Westfall said.
