Storm damages several homes, thousands still without power

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. - Thousands are still out of power in Michiana from Friday night’s severe thunderstorm.

Crews have been out all day restoring power.

Neighbors were picking up the pieces and clearing the roads all day.

Right now, just under 3,000 people are without power in St. Joseph County, some until Monday morning.

With wind reports of up to 70 mph Friday night, residents across Michiana woke up to downed trees, debris all over the roads and no power.

“I heard it,” Russel Becki who lives in Penn Township said. “It sounded like lightning hit my back door then people were running into that tree.”

Becki said he heard his neighbor's tree fall down last night right after he lost power.

“At 10:30 they flickered 3 or 4 times and then they were out for good,” Becki said. “I hook up my Parkinson’s medicine and I had to do it by candlelight and flashlight.”

Now his power is on, but others are not as lucky.

“Around 10:30 it completely went out,” Danielle Borsodi, who also lives in Penn Township said.

According to this Indiana Michigan Power outage map, Borsodi and her neighbors are only supposed to be getting power back Monday.

“Seems like a really long time for the power to be out. I know we reported the outage right away last night at 10:30 when it happened. I was kind of hoping it would be on sooner than that since we reported it right away,” Borsodi said.

While a few in her neighborhood have a backup plan.

“We’ve got a generator that we are using to keep refrigerators, food going so that stuff doesn’t spoil or anything,” Borsodi said.

Others like Jermaine Brown in South Bend don’t.

“Really we just got to call out the family members and see if we can use their fridge for right now, so our food won’t get messed up,” Brown said.

Today some are still picking up trees off their yards… and their houses.

“That was something different. Ain’t ever see that storm in a long time,” Brown said.

There were over 12,000 people without power as of this morning. Indiana Michigan Power crews were out all day. As of 5 p.m., 60 percent of customers had power back.

For more updates on the outages, click here.