Thunderstorm slows traffic on McGalliard, stops it at Madison underpass
Freet Press Report
MUNCIE, IN - A heavy thunderstorm that turned the sky black Tuesday morning slowed traffic on McGalliard Road and closed the Madison Street underpass by noon.
And it also accounted for more downed limbs and power outages as drought turned to flood with more extreme weather reported by the National Weather Service.
More than a dozen Muncie streets were temporarily flooded with inlets covered by leaves and debris after an earlier storm moved through the community around 5 a.m. The second storm after 10:30 a.m. was more powerful and jumped those without power at 2,500, according to Indiana Michigan Power representatives.
Traffic was slowed along McGalliard as some intersections were flooded by more than a inch of rain recorded at the Delaware County Airport. And winds exceeding 52 miles an hour also were recorded as sheeting rain made travel difficult along Ind. 28 and 332.
Nancy Williams, assistant director of sewer maintenance for the Muncie Sanitary District, said crews blocked the Madison underpass as floodwater rushed through the downtown and nearby neighborhood. She also had more than a dozen calls of flooded streets in low areas and where inlets were blocked. Typically flooded intersections like Wheeling and Centennial avenues and McGalliard Road and Bethel Avenue also caused traffic problems.
Jason Rogers, local emergency management director, urged caution in traveling during the storm while utility and street crews took care of power outages and downed limbs and trees.
The NWS forecast more storms Tuesday and Wednesday with high heat indexes through Thursday when the jet stream changes and cooling begins by Friday after storms move out.
Storm chasers are just You
Storm chasers are just You Tube, Facebook and Twitter users. It is information or even opinion although generally not verified by authorities and just the observation of eyewitnesses.
Take all those pictures and reports from the severe storm that moved across Delaware County Tuesday morning.
Indianapolis television was chasing some Tweets that the roof had blown off the Muncie Mall and even reported damage there.
Jason Rogers, Delaware County's emergency management director, reported only the flashing around the roof blew off and the mall remained open with its roof intact.
There also was reports of transformers exploding although Indiana Michigan Power only indicated outages that affected thousands of customers.
And all those trees and limbs caused damage only to a handful of cars and houses unlike television reports of more damage throughout the day.
It's always amusing to see many now depend on social media for their news, leaving lame stream media, as Hollywood calls it, behind or in print the next day.
There's is the future like Google News, AOL Online and Yahoo News that makes up a majority of e-mail users and is fed by news people all over the world. Google is still the leading search engine and news source period.