Michiana begins cleanup after powerful storm

It only lasted for about 15 to 20 minutes, but it dumped buckets. Visibility was at an absolute zero to the point drivers needed to stop while driving on State Road 933.

"I saw all this rain was so heavy," Eva Hunt of South Bend said. "I never seen rain like this before."

Rain swept across the road in the same fashion a white out would have during winter. The only difference? It is the first day of summer. It caused plenty of damage to a sign outside of a local business on 933, and then just up a few miles from our station, a power line came down, resulting in some power outages in the area.

"It just started getting worse and worse," Kristi Bowerman, Mall Manager at Council Oak Antiques said. "The rain was coming down so heavy. It was going in sheets. You could not see two feet in front of you at one point. That's when the sign blew down. Our electricity went out and we didn't know what was going on at first."

Some people who have lived in the area for quite some time thought this was pretty scary.

Ron Clymer said, “Well, the wind came up and it just turned nasty looking. I seen that branch come down, it nailed the wire a little bit, and bounced off the wire and hit the fence over there. I lost power, no telephone, nothing. I was talking to my brother in Niles and they said it got real nasty up there. They got houses that it came down in and cars that got hit.”

When the storm clouds finally cleared, there was plenty of damage all across Michiana as the cleanup efforts begin.

"A tree decided to fall during the storm and hit my car," one South Bend resident said. "It's all good. I ain't worried about it. Just another day in the neighborhood."

Just a few hours later, it's bright and sunny with just a few clouds in the sky. Hardly any reminders of just how powerful this storm was. But north of Indiana, in the Wolverine State, one neighborhood got the brunt of it on E Fulkerson Rd.

Three trees are blocking all or part of the street. Residents were out and about on Monday night. Without power and temperatures near uncomfortable levels, they were forced to go out on their porches to enjoy the night air, and get used to their new movie scene like surroundings.

"I seen [the tree] fall," said Robin Knapp, who lives on E. Fulkerson Rd. and has a tree laying in his driveway. "All of a sudden, all hell broke loose. What can you do? It just happened so fast. You couldn't even protect yourself really."

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Meteorologist Mike Hoffman WNDU (6:24 p.m.): As many times happens in the spring and summer (today is partially both) , some areas got too much rain too quickly, and other areas didn't even get a drop. That's what happened this afternoon as 1"-3" of rain fell from southern Berrien County to Kosciusko County.

Along with the rain came tons of lightning and downed trees and power lines, unfortunately. There is still a chance for a thunderstorm if you live south of US-6, but it would be before 9 p.m. because drier air is sweeping in for later tonight and Tuesday.

If you end up missing all the rain this time, there is a good chance for a storm Wednesday and Wednesday night. As a warm front comes back this way, it looks like one or two "complexes" of thunderstorms could come through. These can bring both torrential rains and severe weather. So we'll be watching Wednesday. Heat and humidity comes back by the weekend, with another chance for a thunderstorm from late Saturday through Sunday.

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Bron: http://www.wndu.com/content/news/Afternoon-storms-to-bring-heavy-rain-lightning-383666801.html | Gewijzigd: 30 januari 2017, 13:49 uur, door Joyce.s