Storms knock down trees; damages Notre Dame church

SOUTH BEND – More than 20,000 people were still without power Wednesday morning as northern Indiana recovered from powerful thunderstorms that killed one man and damaged several buildings including the University of Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart.\nThe Tuesday evening storm knocked down trees in LaPorte and St. Joseph counties and brought heavy rains and winds of up to 70 mph, according to meteorologists in the National Weather Service’s northern Indiana office.\nA tree fell on a car, killing a man who was driving along a Porter County road.\nAt Notre Dame, one of the spires atop the Basilica fell to the ground, bringing with it some bricks and mortar.\n“That’s a fairly significant amount of damage to one of the university’s most important landmarks,” said spokesman Dennis Brown, adding that several large trees on campus also were damaged.\nThe weather service issued tornado warnings and was trying to confirm whether any touched down.\nSeveral people said they saw funnel clouds. Jack Wall, who lives just south of New Carlisle in eastern St. Joseph County, said he saw what he believed was a small tornado touch down briefly in his neighborhood.\n“I would say it wasn’t more than 30- to 40-feet wide,” he said.\nWind tore the roof off the Grand Tots day care center in Cedar Lake, but firefighters were able to move the children to a church, and no one was injured.