A new policy on sounding severe weather warning sirens during the Sturgis motorcycle rally is designed to help avoid the type of lightning-related injuries that sent three rallygoers to the hospital Tuesday night.

Three people were treated at and released Tuesday evening from Sturgis Regional Hospital after a lightning strike at the Glencoe CampResort, east of Sturgis on S.D. Highway 34.

Shawn Donovan, 31, of Belle Fourche, Jody Peterson, 28, of Circle, Minn., and Debbie Strahla, 48, of Jasonville, Ind., all likely suffered some electric shock, but not a direct strike, during the storm that hit about 7 p.m. Tuesday, according to Meade County Sheriff Ron Merwin.

"All three were standing in the right place at the wrong time," Merwin said Wednesday.

A concert by John Fogerty at Glencoe's Rock'n the Rally show was canceled Tuesday because of weather conditions. "Rain and lightning created an impossible and unsafe environment, and we decided that canceling the show was the best way to ensure everyone's safety," spokeswoman Maria Bergh said. Tickets for Fogerty's performance were honored at Wednesday's Kenny Chesney concert.

Meade County's emergency management director Kathie Grant said sirens in the Sturgis/Pleasant Valley area were sounded in advance of Tuesday's storm to warn people to take cover from the high winds, lightning and hail that were forecast. Normally reserved for tornado warnings, the sirens will now be activated to warn people about other weather-related dangers during the rally, she said.

"Because of the number of people potentially exposed to the dangers of large hail, damaging winds and lightning strikes, we will evaluate if the sirens should be sounded," Grant said. "Our plan is to now sound those sirens to give people a little lead time to get to safety."

Sirens are the most efficient method of warning a large population of bikers and campers spread out over a large area, she said.

Hail storms with high winds, such as the one that struck the Piedmont area last Aug. 17, is Grant's worst rally nightmare. "People riding on motorcycles without helmets on when baseball size hail hits … is a main concern," she said.

Meade County currently has 13 sirens, most of them installed within the past two years. Sirens in the Sturgis/Pleasant Valley area were activated Tuesday night, some for the first time. One is located about one-eighth of a mile from the Glencoe campground. Grant said sirens can't be heard at the Buffalo Chip campground further east. "We're looking at the possibility of adding more sirens for other campgrounds," she said.

Heavy rains at the Buffalo Chip made for a soggy crowd, but Tuesday night's concerts there went on as planned, including headliner Lynyrd Skynyrd, spokesman Mike Sanborn said.

"We informed our vendors and campers to batten down the hatches, and we secured the stage," Sanborn said. The high winds that hit elsewhere never developed at the Chip, he said.

Tuesday's storm dropped ping-pong-ball size hail in Lead, where it broke windows on homes and vehicles. Heavy rain washed rocks onto at least two roadways, but loaders cleaned up the debris before nightfall, according to Lead City Administrator Mike Stahl.

A windshield on a police car was shattered by one hailstone, Stahl said. The major swath went through upper Lead in the Hearst Subdivision and Twin City Mall areas. One sewer backup was reported from combined sewer and storm water lines overflowing.

That storm fell apart about 10 miles outside Sturgis and went around the town, Grant said. "We were very fortunate. People lost a few tents here and there, but that was mostly all."

"For the wind that we got, it was pretty uneventful," Sheriff Merwin said about the storm.