Storm Knocks Out Power to LaPorte Co. Dairy Farm
Published: Friday, May 24, 2024
A LaPorte County dairy farm was still running on a generator the day after a storm Monday afternoon brought down five nearby NIPSCO electrical transmission line towers.
All of the towers fell on land the Minich Dairy Farm uses to raise mostly corn along with soybeans, wheat and alfalfa between Kingsbury and Union Mills.
Frank Minich said power went out at his family's dairy farm just as the generator was being hooked up to milk the cows and restore electrical service to the entire 700- to 800-head operation.
While traveling on a tractor a short distance to hook up the generator at his home, Minich said he had to drive around a number of fallen trees to get there and caught his first glimpse of the fallen electrical towers.
"There's five of them kind of bent on the ground and just lying in the fields. Kind of crazy," he said.
Minich said the heavy rain and strong winds moved in rapidly and lasted for just a few minutes.
"I didn't realize it was going to be that bad," he said.
Westville area farmer Mark Parkman was caught in the storm while planting the final one acre of corn he has in one of his fields along Holmesville Road.
Parkman said the winds were strong enough to blow the falling sheets of rain sideways.
After leaving the 240- acre field, Parkman said he was driving home in his tractor pulling the planter when he encountered a nearby lightning strike he described as scary on C.R. 900 West.
"It shook the whole tractor. It was closer than I care for," he said.
Mike Kellems of LaPorte was on his way home from Westville but didn't notice much storm damage until he was close to where the electrical towers fell in the area of 500 West and 400 South.
"A lot of trees down. A lot of power lines down. Utility poles down," he said.
Kellems said farmers were in their fields while he was driving out to Westville a few hours before the storm hit but, while returning, "there were a couple of fields that looked like lakes and that was a 15 to 20 minute rain, if that," he said.
Parkman said the heavy rain certainly didn't help efforts to catch up on his already late spring planting.
He said just 60%of his corn and 45% of his soybeans are in the ground when, normally, he's already finished with planting.
Parkman said some of his corn and soybeans are beginning to emerge from the soil but he's far enough behind to where yield losses could occur in the fall unless Mother Nature is more cooperative during the growing season.
"You just never know. Every year is a gamble," he said.
The towers fell on a stretch of land the Minichs use to plant mostly corn.
Minich said he expects some of the crop will be damaged from NIPSCO crews going out there to put up new towers, but he doesn't mind.
"At least nobody got hurt," he said.
There were no confirmed reports of any tornadoes in that area, but the amount of damage, especially to the towers, has people speculating.
"It had to take an awfully powerful wind shear or a straight line wind to knock those towers down. They actually crumbled to the ground," said Kellems, who retired a few years ago from the LaPorte County Sheriff's Office.
Currently, he's a police officer for Purdue University Northwest.
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