HANCOCK COUNTY — The freezing rain and high winds that rolled through the county late Monday afternoon, March 15, knocked out power for an estimated 3,400 customers in the northwestern part of the county after a line of utility poles toppled.
Crews and contractors from NineStar Connect were still working Tuesday, March 16, to replace and/or repair nearly two dozen utility poles that were knocked down along County Roads 500W and 700N. David Spencer, director of community relations for the utility, said a combination of high straight-line winds and ice coating the lines helped bring down poles.
Service to all but a handful of customers was restored by early Tuesday morning, Spencer said.
“We’ve had worse ice storms that didn’t result in this,” Spencer said. “But, it was the amount of ice combined with strong winds, and there had to have been some really strong straight-line winds because of all the utility poles in a row that just laid down.”
Sam Lashley, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Indianapolis, said the highest gust recorded there was 48 mph Monday afternoon.
“When you get ice on the lines it adds a lot of weight, and that coupled with the winds can create a domino affect,” Lashley said.
Crews went to work immediately once the storm passed late Monday afternoon and had most of the repairs completed within hours. Then, a thunderstorm rolled through the area around 3 a.m. Tuesday morning. Crews were sent home until 11 a.m. That’s when repairs affecting the remaining 12 homes without power were expected to resume.
No additional long-term power outages were reported in the county.
