A severe sustained gust of straight line winds around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday toppled three utility poles one mile south of Milford.

Two of the poles blocked the north-south Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks running parallel to Old SR 15. Crews from NIPSCO reopened the tracks by 6:15 p.m. and spent the rest of the evening erecting new poles and reconnecting utility lines.

Milford Police Chief Rich Miotto started receiving reports from concerned citizens shortly after the storm whipped through the area. “After I received a call from a civilian, I took down the pole numbers and called them in to county dispatch in Warsaw at 3:39 p.m.,” he said. “They called NIPSCO and the railroad to stop the trains.”

Miotto concurred with the utility crews about the cause of the damage. “It looked like straight-line winds. The corn is OK. Everything else is OK.”

No road traffic was disrupted by the damage, though vehicles were slowed down by rubberneckers checking out the scene. The guard arms at CR 1150N about half a mile north of the damage were activated until the tracks were cleared.

Kosciusko REMC reported roughly 3,000 storm-related power outages in the northern part of the county. Approximately 542 NIPSCO customers lost power in Warsaw, Syracuse, Milford and Nappanee. All power had been restored as of press time.

No injuries, and no other damage except for downed branches, were reported.