Efforts to restore power, clear roads and clean up debris continued in Terre Haute and Vigo County after Tuesday’s major storm damage, officials said.

In Vigo County, power was still out for about 8,000 customers as of about 2 p.m., said Rick Burger of Duke Energy. At one point Tuesday, around 20,000 customers had been without power.

The utility anticipated having all Vigo County customers restored by Thursday evening.

WIN Energy had about 1,700 customers without power in Vigo County Wednesday afternoon and hoped to have many of those restored later in the evening.

Duke Energy and private contractors worked through the night, Burger said. On Wednesday, nearly 400 line workers were in Vigo County restoring power, including Duke employees and contractors from Ohio and Kentucky.

The city of Terre Haute has 40 major electrical circuits, Burger said. Last year’s derecho knocked out 28; this storm knocked out 12.

Wednesday morning, Vigo County Commissioners declared a disaster emergency in the county due to Tuesday’s storm, which caused wind damage, downed power lines and trees, triggered electric power transformer fires and contributed to residential and public structure damage.

As a result of the emergency declaration, the state has turned on 211 for the area.

Residents of Vigo County, which include residents of the city of Terre Haute, are asked to contact Indiana 211 to report severe storm damage, according to a news release issued by the city.

The disaster reporting form is ready for Vigo County individuals; visit in211.org and click on “DAMAGE REPORTING” to submit a report. Those without access to the internet can dial 2-1-1 or 866-211-9966, and they will be assisted.

Response to the storm will continue to develop over the next few days and weeks. Those affected are asked to stay tuned to the city’s website and to Facebook.

County commissioner Mark Clinkenbeard said many roads affected by downed trees are now passable, and most roads still closed have power lines down and require assistance from Duke Energy and WIN Energy.

In southern Vigo County, subdivisions including Colonial Park, Woodgate and Deerfield were especially hard-hit by storm damage, he said. Riley also was impacted.

Parts of West Terre Haute also were significantly affected, said county commissioner Chris Switzer. “There were a lot of damaged houses” and damaged vehicles, especially in the area of Darwin and Robinson roads.

A meeting took place Wednesday afternoon that included the city, county commissioners, Emergency Management and Duke Energy “to evaluate where we are with roads and utilities,” Clinkenbeard said.

The county hoped to have all roads open by Thursday afternoon, he said after the meeting.

Doreen Hojnicki, director of the Vigo County Emergency Management Agency, said that while an emergency declaration was made to seek aid for the county, receiving it is not guaranteed.

“Roads are being cleared, power is coming back to some areas, progress is being made. We are currently in the process of doing damage assessment,” Hojnicki said.

Progress has been good, she said. Immediately after the storm, people began cleanup on their own properties. Duke Energy, the county and city also immediately responded.

The biggest concern is when trees go into power lines.

“We have to make sure there is no power before they start cutting trees” for the safety of the public and responders, Hojnicki said.

Jesse Tohill, city of Terre Haute public works director, was out until 10 p.m. Tuesday. “We made a lot of headway even though we couldn’t deal with power lines.”

A large tree at Seventh and Minshall Streets was wrapped in power lines and blocking the street. Duke Energy was eventually able to handle it, and it was moved to the side of the road.

“A big one for me was the light at Third and Ohio — it was out overnight until about 11 a.m. this morning. That was a serious hazard because given the lights along Third, it’s easy to overlook,” he said.

After several rounds of calls, INDOT had it running off a generator and will circle back around when the generator needs to be refilled, Tohill said.

Some traffic lights were still out Wednesday, and restoration efforts continued.

Rea Park was damaged and Gilbert Park has several trees down. The city Parks Department is handing those trees. Woodlawn Cemetery also lost some trees, he said.

“We’ve made a lot of progress in less than 24 hours,” Tohill said Wednesday.

City officials are tracking their expenses to put in for reimbursement.

“Last year, we did get money, but what we learned then was that we were reimbursed for expenses incurred for the first week of repairs. So we’re putting in an extra effort to use all resources to clean up quickly this year,” he said.

The focus for the next week is the removal of significantly sized limbs that create a hazard.

“Once the streets are acceptable, we’ll move to the alleyways — we’ve received reports of trash pickups not occurring because of downed trees in alleyways. Then we’ll make sure that the sidewalks are clear to foot traffic,” Tohill said.

For those needing assistance, the Terre Haute Human Relations Commission has compiled a list of organizations they can contact, from the Red Cross to numerous food pantries and soup kitchens.

The list is posted on the city’s Facebook page. The city also recommends that people who need to charge their devices or access the internet go to Vigo County Public Library, either on South Seventh Street or in West Terre Haute.

Sgt. Matt Ames, public information officer for the Indiana State Police, said, “There was a tree over I-70 that looked as though it could fall over at any time,” so traffic was diverted onto U.S. 41. The Indiana Department of Transportation was contacted.

“That was cleared up around 12:30 p.m. (Wednesday),” Ames said.

According to Jesse Walker, WTWO meteorologist, this weekend is the one year anniversary of the derecho that occurred last year.

Tuesday’s storm was not a derecho, in which a swath of wind damage extends at least 400 miles.

It was close to the same kind of wind, but didn’t meet the criteria.

“This wasn’t nearly as widespread as last year, but in some areas of Terre Haute, it was as bad as last year,” Walker said Tuesday night.

Tuesday’s storm produced a lot of damage, mostly tree damage, but also trees on cars and trees on houses.

Walker attributed the damages to straight line winds that likely reached speeds of 70 to 80 miles per hour.

Most of the damage was south of Interstate 70, he said, including southern Vigo County.