INDIANAPOLIS — Tens of thousands of people were left without power in central Indiana Saturday, as winds whipped the area, keeping first responders and utilities busy with fallen tree limbs and downed power lines.
The bulk of Indiana's outages were reported by Duke Energy, which services the majority of the state.
At around 3 p.m., Duke was reporting more than 12,083 outages statewide. In central Indiana, Duke reported about 7,000 outages.
AES Indiana reported more than 9,900 customers without power Saturday afternoon, up nearly 6,000 from midmorning when AES tweeted to warn its customers of high winds causing outages.
Indiana Michigan Power reported 15,534 customers without power across Indiana as of 5:14 p.m. Of those, 3,496 were in central Indiana counties.
The East Madison Fire Territory reported 2,476 customers were without power at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. The majority of those outages, the fire territory said, were reported by Anderson Light and Power.
The fire territory reminded people to avoid downed power lines, call their local utility company immediately and protect themselves by not touching the line or anything in contact with it.
In Putnam County, deputies and other first responders have kept busy with downed power lines and trees and other debris and in the road.
On one of those calls, two bystanders helped a deputy remove a tree from U.S. 40.
To view or report outages for Duke Energy, click here.