Power out for thousands; authorities warn of downed lines

The National Weather Service has issued an ice storm warning for our area this morning. You are going to see slippery road conditions out there for your drive with downed trees and power lines.

Ice and snow are expected to continue with up to quarter of an inch of ice and an inch of snow this morning. The ice storm warning expires at noon and a winter weather advisory remains in effect until 7 p.m. tonight.

Thousands of homes are without power in our area this morning.

Duke Energy is reporting more than 8,000 customers without power this morning around Bartholomew County, including about 4,500 between Columbus and Newbern and another 2,500 on the west side of the city. Bartholomew County REMC is reporting just over 1,000 customers without power.

You can see the Duke Energy outages map here.

You can see the Bartholomew Count REMC outages map here.

Duke Energy is also reporting about 2,500 customers without power around North Vernon and another 600 around Seymour.

Columbus Fire Department is reporting many calls this morning about downed trees and power lines. Firefighters urge you to use extreme caution around downed trees and branches while you are out this morning.

There is a long list of school closings and delays this morning. You can check them out here.