Strong winds in La Porte County bring down trees and destroy transmission towers

La Porte, Indiana – La Porte County residents were cleaning up on Tuesday following Monday’s extensive damage caused by strong winds.

“An early evening thunderstorm traveled across La Porte County from the west to the east, leaving behind a path of destruction,” the La Porte County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.

The majority of the damage, according to the sheriff’s office, was in the region north of U.S. 6, which is approximately 12 miles west of La Porte and stretches south and east from Lake Station to the community of Westville.

In Scipio Township, strong winds brought down multiple huge transmission towers, damaged utility poles, and collapsed trees and electrical lines.

A few miles east of Westville, in the vicinity of the village of Pinhook, is where the National Weather Service Northern Indiana reports that it has received numerous images and videos showing damage.

“We can confirm that the transmission towers/powerlines that were downed was caused by straight-line winds from a microburst estimated to be 70-90 mph,” NWS Northern Indiana said on X.

The National Weather Service describes a microburst as a “column of sinking air” in a thunderstorm that “may cause comparable, and in some cases, worse damage than some tornadoes produce.”