Crews work to remove fallen trees, restore power after severe storms in South Bend

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - Thousands remained without power Friday as crews worked to clear fallen trees and restore power lines in a South Bend neighborhood near Clay High School.

Multiple trees fell during overnight storms, including one that landed on a power line, another that fell toward a home and one that was rooted out of the ground.

Lou Ferraro said he and his family took shelter in their bathroom as trees fell one after another.

“We started hearing the wind blow pretty hard and lightning and then all of a sudden the trees just started to fall over one after another. We heard them from the house. We went into the bathroom, which is our middle room and no basement and it was pretty scary,” Ferraro said.

Noelle Barton said her power went out Thursday night and had not been restored.

“Our power is still out, it went out last night while we were watching 16 News and it went out at that point and we’re still out,” Barton said.

Mark Ellam said he heard a loud noise in his front yard and was shocked by what he found.

“We heard something towards the front of the house by the garage and we couldn’t see anything and there’s normally a big tree there. You can’t see anything but the tree and it had gone down,” Ellam said.

Some of the damage has been cleaned up. Workers removed a gate and cut up branches as they carefully removed trees from the area.

Stay up to date on local news with WNDU on-air and online. Be sure to download the 16 News Now App and follow our YouTube page as we continue to bring you the latest news coverage.