Severe weather causes fires, floods in Southern Indiana

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June 19, 2009

Lightning blamed for two Jeffersonville fires; rescue workers pull families from high water in Sellersburg

BRADEN LAMMERS AND MATT THACKER The News and Tribune Fri Jun 19, 2009, 02:19 PM EDT

Severe storms that passed through Southern Indiana on Thursday morning kept rescue crews busy, as lightning was blamed for at least two fires, fallen tree branches closed roads and flash floods left motorists stranded.

“There was some minor flooding and stranded motorist in various jurisdictions of Clark County,” said Les Kavanaugh, director of Clark County Emergency Management.

There were no reports of injuries or major property damage, other than flooded basements, Kavanaugh said.

According to dispatchers, St. John’s Road and one lane of Paoli Pike in Floyd County were closed due to fallen trees, and Interstate 64 was closed at mile marker 120 in Floyd County because of a serious injury accident that police say may or may not have been due to severe weather.

Lightning was determined to be the cause of two structure fires in Jeffersonville.

One fire was at the Greater Clark County Schools storage warehouse — at 622 Mechanic St. — where a lightning strike caused a small fire on the roof of the building. There were no injuries and minimal damage to the building, said Jason Sharp, a Jeffersonville fire marshal.

A second fire occurred at Lot 35 in the Sunset Mobile Home Park, off Charlestown Pike. Officials said lightning caused a fire that ignited the underside of the trailer. A bedridden woman was inside the trailer at the time but was safely removed and received no injuries. Minimal damage was reported at the scene.

Sellersburg Fire Department Chief Greg Dietz said they worked two water rescues after motorists became stranded in high water from a creek that overflowed.

In both cases, sports utility vehicles with four people inside became stuck in water that reached as high as the vehicles’ headlights, Dietz said.

The first was an older couple driving on Ind. 31. The second was a local family driving on Penn Avenue. There were no injuries in either incident.

“Don’t drive through high water, no matter how shallow you think it might be,” Dietz said.

Many people were without power because of storm damage, but electricity was mostly restored by the evening.

At noon, Duke Energy was reporting 2,227 power outages in Floyd County and 3,033 outages in Clark County. Less than 600 total outages were being reported at 5 p.m.

One fire that was not related to the storm broke out at an apartment building at 1319 E. Court Ave. The fire resulted from the housing authority leaving gas-powered weed eaters in the apartment.

Fumes from the weed eaters were ignited by a pilot light, causing the unit to catch fire, Sharp said.

The three other apartments in the same structure were not damaged and no injuries were reported. The damage was estimated at about $30,000, Sharp said.