Storm slammed Boundary City homes

Twenty-five years ago this week, high winds caused damage to homes and other structures in the Boundary City area.

The June 12, 1998, edition of The Commercial Review featured coverage of the aftermath of the storm which struck about 9 p.m. the night before. Damage was concentrated along Treaty Line Road in Pike and Madison townships near Boundary City.

The area “looked like a war zone,” said Jay County Sheriff Todd Penrod. “Nobody was hurt, so that’s fantastic. it looked like the storms were going to the north and the south of us, but lo and behold, we didn’t make it.”

A tree fell on the home of Lester Dirksen at 5471 S. 300 East, and Kim Gabbard, 332 E. Treaty Line Road, reported damage to his house as well as a trampoline that was missing.

The sheriff’s department received calls about damage to the room at the former schoolhouse at the intersection of county roads 800 South and 100 East as well as to St. Paul’s Church at 6559 S. 300 East.

Residents of the Boundary City area, including Kathy Cook, were busy cleaning up their properties. The Cooks’ barn was destroyed and a large tulip tree blew over onto Kathy’s car.

“You could hear this noise go over the roof,” she said of the home where she lived with her husband Bill and son Kyle. “I looked up and you could actually feel it and hear it go past you.

“By the time I was closing the windows, it was done. I wasn’t scared because you didn’t have time to be. It just went over, and zap, it was done.

“We’re fortunate the house didn’t go.”

Jay County Highway Department had crews out overnight and early June 12 clearing downed trees and branches from county roads. Jay County REMC customers, including 500 in the Bluff Point area, were without power, as were about 700 customers in northern Randolph County.