Lightning produced by thunderstorms that rolled across the state struck at least eight people in central Indiana and set two buildings on fire in Anderson, authorities said.
Winds gusts that topped 90 mph blew down trees and caused power outages that across the state left 35,000 homes or businesses in the dark at times Sunday. Fewer than 1,000 remained without service by Monday morning, a utility spokeswoman said.
The strong winds and heavy rain blew through the last day of the James Dean Fest at Marion's airport, forcing the band America to cut short its performance and scattering the crowd. Many had been awaiting the 8:30 p.m. screening of ''Giant.''
''Thank God the screen wasn't up, because the wind would've taken it down for sure,'' said Warner Bros. executive Brian Jamieson.
None of the about 1,000 to 1,200 people who attended Sunday were injured, Jamieson said.
Lightning struck six people at an outdoor paintball facility in Sheridan, about 25 miles north of Indianapolis, and two men at an Indianapolis park. None of the injuries appeared life-threatning, emergency personnel said.
Robin Harvey of Anderson was getting ready to pop a movie into her DVD player when she heard a loud boom that she guessed was a blown electricity transformer. Ten minutes later a neighbor knocked on her door.
''A guy told me my roof was on fire,'' she said. ''I grabbed my cat and left. He took a garden hose and tried to put it out a little.''
Firefighters evacuated her apartment building while they put out the fire there and at a dentist's office in the city.
PSI Energy still had been unable to restore power to 700 customers statewide, including 500 in Kokomo, as of 7 a.m. Monday, spokeswoman Angeline Protogere said. At the height of the outages, affected customers totaled 19,000 statewide, including 12,000 in Kokomo.
PSI also lost transmission lines to a substation providing power to Frankfort's municipal power utility, and 16,000 customers in that city lost power before it was restored Sunday night. A ''handful'' of customers there remained without power Monday morning, Protogere said.
Winds gusted to 91 mph near Frankfort, about 20 miles southeast of Lafayette, the National Weather Service said. Storms also dropped hail the size of golf balls in LaPorte County in northern Indiana and caused wind to blow up to 60 mph near South Bend.
The winds hitting the James Dean festival destroyed many books, DVDs, clothing and one-of-a-kind artworks, Jamieson said. Portable toilets were knocked over and blown upside down.
''It looks like a war zone with trash and debris everywhere,'' said David Loehr, owner of the James Dean Gallery, a museum and gift shop in nearby Gas City.
About 6,000 fans attended the three-day event that marked the 50th year of the Hollywood star's death in a California car accident, Jamieson said.
