Thursday afternoon witnessed a formidable line of severe thunderstorms sweeping through the Midwest, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Nearly 500,000 people in Indiana and Illinois found themselves without power as a result of the powerful storms’ impact.
The severe weather system, characterized by heavy rainfall, large hail, and winds reaching up to 70 mph, struck Illinois and Indiana during the mid-afternoon hours on Thursday. The brunt of the damage left more than 225,000 customers in Illinois without electricity, while nearly 300,000 customers experienced power outages in Indiana.
Addressing the situation, Duke Energy, a major power company in the region, issued a statement indicating that assessment and repair crews will be deployed as the storms subside. However, the company also cautioned customers to brace for the possibility of further outages throughout the weekend due to the forecasted “unsettled weather pattern” expected over the next few days. Ameren Illinois, another electric service provider, confirmed that their incident management team is diligently working to restore outages caused by the “strong line of thunderstorms” traversing their service territory.
The impact of the storms was particularly significant in Springfield, Illinois, prompting Mayor Misty Buscher to declare a local state of emergency curfew for all public places within the city from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Friday. The measure was deemed necessary to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of the city’s residents in the aftermath of the severe weather event.
According to the Network’s power outage database, as of 6:30 ET on Thursday, over 233,000 customers in Illinois and over 288,000 in Indiana were still grappling with power outages. Sangamon County, encompassing Springfield, and Vermilion County were among the hardest hit areas in Illinois, while most outages in Indiana were reported in Marion County, home to the state’s capital, Indianapolis, and Vigo County.
Detailed figures from the database revealed the extent of the power outages in heavily impacted areas:
Illinois:
- Sangamon County: 50,447 outages
- Vermilion County: 30,522 outages
- Monroe County: 29,422 outages
- San Francisco County: 6,544 outages
- Santa Clara County: 3,520 outages
Indiana:
- Marion County: 57,154 outages
- Vigo County: 40,285 outages
- Champaign County: 30,173 outages
- Macon County: 18,313 outages
- Christian County: 9,769 outages
- Edgar County: 9,345 outages
The aftermath of these severe thunderstorms poses a considerable challenge to the affected communities, and authorities and utility companies are working diligently to restore power and aid those impacted by the devastating weather event.
