UPDATED 2:15 P.M.
A line of severe storms packing winds up to 70 miles per hour moved through Johnson County Wednesday night, damaging trees and power lines across the county, and buildings in Franklin.
A few of the buildings suffered structural damage, the most significant being the Jefferson Street Pub at the corner of Water and Jefferson streets in the heart of downtown, said Kirby Cochran, Franklin police chief.
“The big thing is there were no injuries,” Cochran said. “I think what saved us was the fact that everyone is staying home. On a regular night, that place would have had a lot of patrons and we would’ve had a different story today.”
City and county street crews worked overnight to remove debris from downtown streets and buildings, he said.
A block away, the roof of a condominium at 100 N. Home Ave. collapsed, Cochran said.
“Originally, we thought we had some entrapment in that building, but we did not,” he said. “People just didn’t want to leave because of the stay-at-home order, believe it or not.”
Power was in and out Thursday across Franklin while utility crews worked to repair damaged power lines throughout the city, Cochran said.
The storm caused widespread power outages. About 1,000 Duke Energy customers were without power for more than 16 hours before it came back on around 2 p.m. Thursday.
Areas with the most outages included parts of Greenwood, south of the high school, Whiteland, in the Oakville subdivision, New Whiteland, just south of Tracey Road, and parts of downtown Franklin, according to an outage map on Duke’s website.
Duke crews were out assessing the damage Thursday to determine what supplies were needed to fix the problems, spokesperson Lew Middleton said.
“We had limited ability to do that when it was dark. But now that it’s daylight, we’re hard working at it,” Middleton said Thursday morning.
Winds knocked down 12 poles holding power lines on County Road 75 West at Whiteland Road, which was closed for several hours. Some of the poles snapped off while others fell, said Tim Hogue, director of operations at Johnson County REMC.
Crews isolated that section of power lines and restored power to those who used it, Hogue said.
“Straight line winds basically did a domino effect on that stretch of poles, because it was one right after the other,” he said. “That was the most damage, and it’s been the most time consuming.”
Line teams at the company began working on the damage around 9:30 p.m. and were still working Thursday afternoon, he said. About 90 Johnson County REMC customers were impacted.
High winds Thursday threw a wrench in repairs, Hogue said.
“A lot of times, you can get a line up and a limb decides to fall, and it could take the line back down,” he said. “It kind of feels like you’re spinning your wheels.”
Fire departments across the county responded to several fire and damage calls Wednesday night. Bargersville Community Fire Department responded to two structure fires—one in Bargersville and one in Trafalgar—during the storm, said Mike Pruitt, Bargersville’s assistant fire chief.
A fire broke out at a Trafalgar garage containing antique tractors and tools, causing about $30,000 worth of damage, Pruitt said. A cause had not been determined Thursday afternoon, but it was likely due to the storm, he said.
The fire department also received a call from a man trapped in his car during the storm, in the parking lot of a car wash at State Roads 135 and 144, near downtown Bargersville, Pruitt said. The driver ran over power lines and his car was wrapped in them. He escaped with no injuries, he said.
“When we go on a call for a power line, we examine if it’s an immediate threat to a structure, or if there is a risk of someone walking over a line,” Pruitt said.
More than 30 911 calls came in about power lines and trees down in Bargersville, Edinburgh and Franklin, and a stop light was reported damaged in Greenwood.
The Greenwood Fire Department did not respond to any significant damage aside from fallen power lines and trees, Chief Darin Hoggatt said.
“We were very fortunate,” he said.
UPDATED 1:30 P.M.
About 10 minutes before Jefferson Street Pub was set to close Wednesday night, the storm hit.
By 9 p.m., the awning on Water Street tore off and started banging against the windows, said Karen Duckworth, the pub’s owner.
“It kept banging against the windows and the door and I thought it was going to break all the windows,” Duckworth said. “We went down to the basement and all you could hear was (what sounded) like bottles against the windows. When it let up, we took a look outside and there was all this debris. I thought it was one of the other buildings that had collapsed, but that was my roof.”
She tip-toed around dirty water on the floor of the restaurant Thursday morning, surveying the interior damage caused by a leak from the damaged roof. The restaurant, which was already limited to carry-out service due to the coronavirus pandemic, will be closed for a few weeks as insurance claims are evaluated and repairs take place.
Still, Duckworth intends to keep the long-time business up and running, she said.
“With this, I’m still just in shock,” she said, standing inside the restaurant. “I don’t really even know where to start or what to do.”
Down the street, a fallen tree left a house on E. South Street wrecked.
The tree pummeled the roof during the Wednesday night storm. Branches covered the entrance, which was barely visible. Parts of what used to be walls were scattered around the front lawn.
Steve Cox, owner of Cox’s Tree Service, was in between calls for other repairs when he passed by the house to observe the damage. He had other calls in Franklin to get to, and was in the midst of 21 repair jobs to remove branches and limbs that had fallen on houses, driveways and cars in Franklin, Bargersville, Greenwood and Mooresville.
The damage to the house on South Street, however, was worse than anything else he’d seen, Cox said.
“It’s probably been a couple of years, but it was about the same time; spring brings this every time,” Cox said of previous storms. “We like to take care of everybody we can. We’ll work 24/7 to have everything taken care of.”
Across the street from Girls Inc. of Johnson County, on Home Avenue, branches and limbs littered the sidewalk outside a small apartment building.
The storm knocked off bricks and stones, which were previously on the exterior of the building, and damaged the roof. As an Express Restorations employee cleaned up the wooden debris, Dan Diersing, who owned one of the apartments, surveyed the damage. Clean-up crews had been at the scene since 8 a.m., he said.
“Part of the roof came off and knocked off the bricks and the stones,” Diersing said. “They’re going to tarp (the roof) sometime this morning so it won’t get rained in and then the insurance company will go from there.”
EARLIER VERSION:
Officials on Thursday were surveying the damage in downtown Franklin after strong storms blew through the city Wednesday night, uprooting trees and downing power lines across the county. More than 30 damage reports were made Wednesday night, according to the county’s 911 call log.
Madison Street, between Main Street and Home Avenue, were closed Thursday, due to significant damage at First Presbyterian Church, said Kirby Cochran, Franklin police chief.
City officials were concerned strong winds Thursday could topple the church’s steeple, which suffered damage.
Read Friday’s Daily Journal for more storm coverage and photos.
