Thousands of Bartholomew County residents faced a second day without power on Friday.
Besides seeing the impacts of large, toppled trees crushing sheds and damaging some homes, uncertainty about how long the power outage would last added stress, weighing heavily on people’s minds.
The storm, which tore through southern Indiana at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, caused more than 6,300 power outages in the area.
A third of those residents woke up Friday morning still without power. For many, the stress increased with each passing hour.
Duke Energy, Bartholomew County’s main service provider, anticipated that the vast majority of power would be restored by midnight Friday — the 33-hour mark for the outage.
Crews worked to restore power until about 11:30 p.m. Thursday, said Chip Orben, government and community relations manager for Duke Energy.
With the arrival of daylight Friday morning, more than 570 line workers, damage assessors, tree trimmers and other workers converged on Columbus to resume the effort and speed up restoration.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
