Wednesday night’s thunderstorms felled trees, knocked out power and pelted homes across Indiana and Northern Kentucky with golf ball-sized hail. Residents of storm-affected areas said it was the some of the worst weather they could remember having.
"I have lived here 22 years, right here in this house, and this is the worst storm to come over Rising Sun since I lived here," said Al Hill of Rising Sun, Indiana.
The sounds of thunder, tornado sirens and hail in Hill's neighborhood were so loud that he didn’t hear an enormous maple tree uproot and tumble into his neighbor’s house across the street, he said. No one was harmed by the collapse, but the weather cut off electricity up and down North High Street.
GALLERY: Golf ball-sized hail hammers Tri-State
"I was going to watch the debate," Hill joked. "But not now."
Just now seeing this pictures from Sarah Perkins in Dillsboro, IN. Hail so dense it looks like snow! @WCPO #GMTS pic.twitter.com/mqq3DUEnxs
— Ally Kraemer (@AllyKraemer) October 20, 2016
In Walton, Kentucky, damaging winds and hail took down power lines and knocked a tree into the path of an oncoming train; authorities and mechanics spent several hours clearing the tracks.
The storm then moved east and hit Independence, Kentucky, where tumbling power lines left about 1,100 people still stranded in total darkness by 5 a.m. Thursday.
"People started coming in here, then the lights went out, and you look outside and couldn’t see anything from the water," said a Gold Star Chili employee who was working at the time of the storm.
By the time Wednesday rolled over into Thursday, more than 3,000 Duke Energy customers reported that the power had gone out in their neighborhoods across the Tri-State.
