Crews work to replace downed utility poles in Bartholomew County
Mar 31, 2025
NWS confirms 1 tornado and storm cleanup underway
COLUMBUS, Ind. (WISHTV) — Sunday night’s storm in Bartholomew County took out multiple utility poles and crews on Monday worked to restore them.
Winds from 70 to 80 mph left damage in the county. The National Weather Service said the power
ful winds left downed powerlines and uprooted trees in and around Columbus, the Bartholomew County seat.
One massive tree was uprooted on Devin Coons’ property He says he saw a funnel cloud. “All the powerlines in a row went pop, pop, pop, right in a row. I ran inside and looked back out of the window and the tree came down.”
Homes along County Road 550 West were left without power.
Greg Nasby has been a resident of Columbus for over 30 years. His power went out Sunday night, and he waited Monday for it to be restored. “They had the roads blocked up on each end and put barricades overnight. I was just worried about the downed electric wires in the middle of the road.”
Nasby remembered the winds being so strong, he thought his windows would break. He’s grateful they didn’t. “It was a lot of excitement. My aunt is 93 years old, and she was in the basement and everybody was safe, and we were prepared.”
Crews from energy company Bartholomew County REMC were busy digging up downed and broken utility poles and replacing them. They said on average it takes from 60 to 90 minutes to restore an utility pole. Jacob Maddox, a field engineer at Bartholomew County REMC, said, “I would say I would give us another day to try and make sure we have everyone back online again.”
He said as many from 900 to 1,000 customers lost power. As of 6:20 p.m. Monday, only 46 customers of the REMC remained without power, according to poweroutage.us. Elsewhere in Bartholomew County, 151 Duke Energy customers remained without power at 6:20 p.m. Monday.
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