[Ccarc] Storm

[Tom Murray]

Storm twirls Argos cop
Lights out in Rochester

BY TODD HAMM
Staff writer, The Sentinel

Argos is a mess this morning, but Cory Morris is alive.

Morris, an Argos patrolman, escaped injury Wednesday night when high winds 
pummeled his squad car with debris, lifted it off the ground, spun it around 
and pushed it 20 feet.

He'd been sent to Indiana 110 and U.S. 31 to storm spot, said Argos Chief 
Rodney Rudd.

"He was in the Subway lot. The BP sign, the one they post the prices on, 
started churning and it shattered. That blew into his car," Rudd said. "He 
was sitting stationary. When it was all over, he was 20 feet away."

The station pump canopy also was torn apart at about 11:45 p.m.

Rudd said flying debris punctured two of Morris' car tires. "BP McDonald's 
looks like someone dropped a bomb on it. There's plastic and metal all over 
the place," Rudd said.

"Topps (Industries) suffered heavy damage to their roof. So did Madras 
(Packaging). There was a gas leak at Topps," Rudd said.

"Lots of trees down, lots of lines down, lots of damage," Rudd said. "We did 
have one injury. One woman, a tree fell on her house and she injured her 
leg. She was transported by Argos EMS, I think to St. Joe in Plymouth. But 
she's going to be OK," Rudd said. He didn't know her name.

The National Weather Service is expected to review damage in Argos today to 
determine if it was a tornado.

Most of Fulton County was under a National Weather Service tornado warning 
during the storm, but damage was relatively light.

At Nyona Lake, a tree fell on a mobile home at 2908 South East Lakeshore 
Drive. Nobody was home, caller Michael Garrard said. Liberty Township 
firefighters searched just in case about 1:15 a.m. and found nobody. Fulton 
County Sheriff Walker Conley said two other Nyona Lake mobile homes were 
damaged by trees.

The storms dropped large hail near Kewanna - which spotters reported as 
being as big as a quarter coin - and downed trees throughout the county. The 
Rochester Water Department reported 1.25 inches of rain fell.

The National Weather Service is investigating unconfirmed reports of a 
tornado, said NWS meteorologist Mike Sibonis in charge at Syracuse.

"There were very powerful winds in the storm," Sibonis said.

These National Weather Service warnings were issued for Fulton County: 
Severe thunderstorm, 10:59 p.m. to 11:45 p.m.; tornado warning, 11:10 p.m. 
to midnight; second tornado warning, 11:16 p.m. to midnight.

Sibonis said his office also took reports of wind damage at Culver, Leiters 
Ford and Rochester.

Marshall County dispatchers said most reports in their county were of trees 
and power lines down in the Culver and Argos areas.

High winds and downed trees caused power outages in and around Rochester.

One half of Fulton County REMC's customers, about 3,000, were without power 
at one point last night, said Director Eldon Umbarger. "For a while, we had 
all of our Rochester service off," he said.

At 8:30 a.m. today, 450 REMC customers were still without power in the areas 
north and east of Rochester, at Bruce Lake and Kewanna and east of Caston 
Educational Center.

Duke Energy spokeswoman Angeline Prodigere said about 70 Fulton County Duke 
Energy customers lost power from 12:23 a.m. to 5:12 a.m. due to lightning 
damage in the vicinity of the 615 Madison St., Duke Energy office and 
substation.

The storm roused ham radio operator Tom Murray. He is a trained weather 
spotter and member of Fulton County Skywarn.

"I kind of roam," Murray said. He was mostly west of Rochester Wednesday 
night and this morning.

Murray has a wind-measuring device on his vehicle. "The highest wind gust I 
had last night was 37 mph," he said, noting that's light compared to a storm 
earlier in the summer which rocked his van back and forth.

"It was a pretty good storm. I saw a lot of cool cloud-to-ground lightning," 
he said. "It was impressive." The National Weather Service estimated between 
4,600 and 6,000 lightning strikes per hour were associated with the storm.

Murray and the other Skywarn volunteers gathered at the Fulton County 
Emergency Management Agency office to watch the weather radar as the storm 
subsided. "There was a lot of flooding on Ninth Street," Murray said. "I've 
never seen it at Nubiano's that high before."

"I wish more people were interested in amateur radio," Murray said. "I don't 
know how many times I've been on the radio here at home and talked to the 
guy at the National Weather Service direct."

Police received these other calls about the storm:

• 11:46 p.m. - Fred Oden, Tiosa, told police utility lines were down at 700 
N. 675 West and 73 N. 100 West.

• 12:37 a.m. - a transformer at 316 W. 750 South was burning.

• 12:40 a.m. - Randy Howard, no address listed, told police a tree fell on a 
power line at county roads 500 East and 400 North.

• 12:51 a.m. - traffic light at U.S. 31 and Old U.S. 31 not working.

• 4:04 a.m. - tree across roadway at county roads 700 East and 300 North.

• 4:36 a.m. - utility lines down behind Rumors, 1617 Main St.

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