Justin Wolfgang, Journal staff | Posted: Monday, May 28, 2007 11:00 pm
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RAPID CITY - Hail, heavy rains and lightning broke windows,
caused local flooding and started a house fire in western South
Dakota Monday night.
Casey Warren, assistant fire chief with the Johnson
Siding/Cleghorn Volunteer Fire Department, said a home in Hisega
suffered up to $50,000 in damage from a lightning strike around 10
p.m.
Fire departments from Rapid City, Rapid Valley, Rockerville,
Black Hawk and Doty assisted on the fire, which was extinguished by
midnight.
Warren said the fire could have been much worse had the
departments not arrived on the scene earlier.
"It had the potential to be a really bad fire," he said.
The owner was home at the time of the fire, but no one was
injured in the blaze at the corner of Pioneer Avenue and S.D.
Highway 44 in Hisega.
In Union Center, hail measured as large as two inches in
diameter broke windows and destroyed alfalfa crops. Travis Enright,
who lives five miles southeast of Union Center, said he could tell
the oncoming storm was going to pack a punch.
"It got dead calm and then the sky turned a green color," he
said. "Then the clouds started circling and it got cold and then it
sounded like a roar."
Enright had two windows broken in his home and had golf
ball-sized hail with 40 mile per hour winds.
Gary Cammack said pea-sized hail accumulated in a drift eight
inches deep on his back porch in Union Center.
In Lawrence County, Emergency Services Director Paul Thomsen
said he had reports from all over the county of hail, lightning
strikes and even a minor rock slide in Central City.
"Everything was minor to a certain extent, but it kept us busy
cleaning things up."
Thomsen added there were numerous reports of car damage from
hail in Spearfish Canyon and a reported fire from a lightning
strike at an apartment building in Spearfish that turned out to be
unfounded.
In Whitewood, Thomsen said the fire department reported
receiving four inches of rain from the storm and there was some
minor basement flooding.
Mason Short, executive director for the Rapid City Regional
Airport, said one flight was delayed Monday night because of the
storm.
The United Airlines flight from Denver was scheduled to arrive
at 8 p.m., but did not land until 10:40 p.m., only minutes before
the next United flight from Denver arrived slightly behind schedule
at 10:50 p.m.
In Custer County on Monday night, Emergency Services director
Mike Carter said there was little damage besides a few small
lightning fires.
"I think we also had a couple of lost hikers during the
storm," he said. "The circumstances during a storm always make that
more of a concern."
The National Weather Service reported .9 inch of rain on
Monday in Rapid City, .73 inch in Custer and .77 inch in
Faith.
In other areas, hail of one inch in diameter was reported from
regions across western South Dakota and a tornado touched down
north of Wright, Wyo. for two miles, but caused no damage. Winds in
excess of 70 mph were reported near Newcastle, Wyo.
