Sioux Falls, South Dakota — Gusts of up to 80 mph knocked down numerous trees and branches, forcing Highway 34 to close for a short time. Today, the residents are cleaning up. Hundreds of tree branches litter the streets and yards of Woonsocket. Crews worked hard this morning to clear clogged roads.
The wind uprooted and tipped over numerous huge trees.
We all know how much force it takes to bend a traffic sign like this one. Many households lost electricity last night, but it had been restored to roughly 90% of the town by early morning.
Joel Rassel, a member of the local Council, and other local and county leaders are organizing the cleanup. He claims the storm hit hard and fast.
“The rain came first, then it was hail, then lots of heavy wind, lots of washing rain,” Rassel told me.
Rasell reports that three establishments in the town center were the most severely damaged. This vehicle is coated with insulation from the D&L Service and Tires facility, which lost its roof. There were just two persons inside the building when the storm came. They were on one side of the building, and the roof was about to fall off, so they raced to the other side. The roof then began to collapse, forcing them to seek refuge under a metal desk. Steve Dammann has owned the building for 34 years.
“I couldn’t even see 5 feet out in front of the door; I was watching it, and all of a sudden everything started going, and I said we should get in a different location; we couldn’t go outside because it was bad out there,” Dammann explained.
Dammann says he intends to rebuild. Talking to folks in town, you get the impression that they aren’t going to gaze back, but rather forward.
“It will be a different town when we are done cleaning up, but we will re-grow, rebuild as we can, and we will be just as strong as we were yesterday,” Rassel told me.
Although the damage is fairly obvious in this area of Woonsocket, the good news is that no homes were significantly damaged and no one was injured. In Woonsocket. People from nearby villages are offering their time to assist Woonsocket with the cleanup.
All indicators suggest that they were straight line winds caused by a thunderstorm.
