Storm resulted in damage across county

Twenty-five years ago this week, a storm slammed Jay County.

The July 20, 1998, edition of The Commercial Review featured coverage of a severe thunderstorm that left trees and power lines down.

The biggest impact from the storm came along county road 200 West between county roads 100 North and 200 North.

At the time of publication on July 20, that area of county road 200 West remained closed. It was expected to stay closed for another  24 hours or more as crews from Jay County REMC and American Electric Power  worked to repair nine downed utility poles.

Beyond that area, Jay County Sheriff’s Department received more than 20 reports of storm damage that mostly came in the form of downed trees and power lines. Those included a tree limb that fell on a mobile home owned by April Garringer in Oakwood Mobile Home Park that caused heavy damage.

Downed trees had also forced road closures on county road 650 West south of county road 400 North, county road 200 East between county road 650 South and Boundary Pike, and county road 500 West between Indiana 26 and county road 200 North.

In all, about 600 Jay County REMC customers and 200 American Electric Power customers lost power.

Portland Fire Department responded to three calls regarding fires from downed power lines. Two were out by the time firefighters arrived, and then extinguished a third at 12:25 a.m. July 20 in the alley between Arch and High Streets near Harrison Street.

The storm also knocked out Americable services.

It was just the first in a run of severe weather, as areas of Jay County experienced flooding later in the week.