Bartholomew County residents cleaning up tree debris in the Edinburgh and Taylorsville area have a place to drop off their material.
According to the German Township Trustee Chris West, residents can drop off the material on the south end of the trustee’s office lot at 9237 S. Main Street in Taylorsville.
County highway crews will be picking up the debris from that location.
Bartholomew County officials are looking for your help in sorting out the tornado warnings that went out to some residents during Saturday’s storms.
The Bartholomew County Emergency Management department is asking for details of alerts you may have received on your cell phone from either the National Weather Service or through the Everbridge alert system that provides alerts for the county government.
Residents in the Taylorsville and Edinburgh areas, as well as Hope, are saying they received tornado warnings Saturday. But there was never a tornado warning issued by the weather service for Bartholomew County. The closest tornado warning was for southern Shelby County and Rush counties. Despite the lack of warnings, three tornados touched down in our area Saturday, with one in Brown County near Princes Lakes, one in Johnson County on Camp Atterbury and a 14-mile long trek of a tornado across southern Shelby County.
If you received an alert, you can provide details to emergency management through their Facebook page or by calling 812-379-1680.
An early morning machinery fire at Cummins yesterday caused more than $50,000 in damages.
According to Columbus Fire Department reports, firefighters were called to the Cummins plant on Fifth Street at 2:42 a.m. Monday morning about a machine on fire.
Smoke from the fire caused visiblity difficulties in the building for firefighters, but they discovered a large piece of equipment on the production floor that was on fire. The building’s sprinkler system was already activated in the area.
Firefighters used CO2 extinguishers to put the fire out and ventilation fans to clear the smoke.
No one was injured and the cause of the fire is under investigation.
Former Vice President and Columbus native Mike Pence is leaving the door open for a 2024 White House run. In a New York Times interview out Monday, Pence said “we’ll go where we’re called.” Former President Trump is also considering a 2024 run for president, but Pence said that wouldn’t affect any decision he makes.
Click for New York Times interview with Pence
The interview was published just before Pence appeared in Georgia at a rally for GOP Governor Brian Kemp. Former President Trump is endorsing Kemp’s opponent in today’s primary, former Senator David Perdue. Trump is at odds with Kemp and Pence for not trying to overturn the 2020 election results.
Story courtesy of TTWN Media Networks Inc.
A Franklin man was rescued after a truck fell on top of him Sunday afternoon in western Bartholomew County.
According to reports from the Columbus Fire Department and Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, the incident happened at about 1:47 p.m. Saturday afternoon in the 9200 block of West Old Nashville Road. 22-year-old Michael Taylor of Franklin was working underneath a pickup when it fell onto him.
Firefighters say that crews from Columbus and Harrison Township Volunteer Fire Department used extrication airbags to lift the truck and free Taylor within six minutes of arriving on the scene.
Taylor was flown by Lifeline helicopter to the trauma center at IU Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis with possible internal injuries.
Photo courtesy of Columbus Fire Department
Bartholomew County emergency officials are investigating why some residents received automated alerts of a tornado warning Saturday afternoon, despite no tornado warning ever being declared for the county.
Some residents have said they were concerned about the lack of warning for the high winds and tornados that swept through the area Saturday afternoon. But Bartholomew County only sounds its tornado sirens if the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning, or if a tornado is spotted in the county. Neither happened on Saturday.
However, some residents received a tornado warning alert through the Everbridge alert system, the county’s automated system that sends out phone calls, text messages and email warnings. Shannan Cooke, head of the Bartholomew County Emergency Management Department, said that she had checked with the National Weather Service. While a tornado warning was issued for Shelby and Rush counties Saturday afternoon, there was no tornado warning for Bartholomew. And no part of the polygon drawn by weather forecasters overlapped into Bartholomew County, she was assured, which could have triggered the automated alerts.
Cooke said the next step is to contact the Everbridge operators and find out why some Bartholomew residents were sent the alerts.
Photo courtesy of Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department.
There are still more than 1,000 households in our area without power following Saturday’s torrential rains, high winds and tornados.
According to Duke Energy, there are 793 customers in the Columbus area without power along with more than 200 in southern Shelby County, and 30 in Hope. There are also about 15 between Bean Blossom and Columbus.
South-Central REMC is reporting 189 customers without power in Brown County. Bartholomew County REMC had three customers still out and Jackson County REMC had a single customer without power as of earlier this morning.
Saturday’s winds that knocked down trees, damaged buildings and took out power for tens of thousands of residents included three separate tornados in our area, according to the National Weather Service in Indianapolis. The weather service says the damage was caused by a combination of straight-line winds and rain-shrouded tornados.
The three tornados included touchdowns in Brown, Johnson and Shelby counties, including a hit at Camp Atterbury that ripped the steeple off of the base chapel.
The longest of the three was a 14-mile tornado that started north east of Edinburgh at 3:47 p.m. Saturday, skipping across almost 14 miles of southern Shelby County with wind speeds of up to 110 mph. At its widest, the tornado reached 100 yards across near Mount Auburn and has been classified as an EF-1. It ended at 4:12 p.m.
The Johnson County tornado touched down at Camp Atterbury with 84 mph winds at 3:48 p.m. In addition to the chapel damage, the tornado also lifted some cars after plywood from the chapel was blown under their wheels. It was an EF-0.
In Brown County, another EF-0 tornado touched down at 3:40 p.m. near Princes Lakes with 84 mph winds.
Each of the tornados were also accompanied by 80-90 mph straight line winds in a wider area.
Photo courtesy of Indiana National Guard. Map courtesy of National Weather Service.
Thousands are still without power, more than half a day after Saturday afternoon’s storms.
As of 7:30 a.m. , Duke Energy was reporting about 5,000 customers without power in the Columbus area, and another 740 near Nashville. Bartholomew County REMC was down to 339 without power, most in German Township. Jackson County REMC reported less than 20 customers without power, and South Central Indiana REMC had 1,497 customers without power in Brown County, plus another 182 in Johnson County.
According to the Bartholomew County Emergency Operations Center, the following roads are closed as of 9 p.m. Saturday due to storm debris.