Derecho topples trees, damages roofs across Madison, South Dakota

MADISON — Kathie Lewis had by no means seen a storm just like the one which blew by way of Madison on Thursday evening.

“You possibly can see it coming,” she mentioned. Lewis was standing on the window overlooking her entrance yard when she made the choice that she, her husband and their 3-year-old granddaughter ought to head for the basement.

“We had been simply heading right down to the basement,” she mentioned, when a tree fell into their home. A few home windows shattered and the branches had been hanging into the coated entrance porch.

They spent the subsequent half-hour within the basement earlier than they got here upstairs to survey the harm. Since they did not have energy, the group spent the evening at Lewis’ brother’s home 5 miles outdoors of city.

When Lewis and her husband got here again the subsequent morning, the ability was again on.

The winds had been so robust in Madison that Roy Lindsay, the mayor, mentioned that whereas the storm wasn’t thought of a twister, “it is a tornado.”

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The Nationwide Climate Service clocked a 97 mph wind gust on the town on Thursday evening.

Lindsay mentioned that in Friday certainly one of their law enforcement officials was capable of take a drone over city to survey the harm, which included a lot of tree harm and harm to roofs.

Nobody was killed and at the very least three individuals had been injured, Lindsay mentioned.

Gov. Kristi Noem made a go to to Madison Thursday evening after the storm and activated the Nationwide Guard to assist with cleanup on the town, together with selecting up timber on the town and working the tree dump outdoors of city.

“It is very useful,” Lindsay mentioned, including there had been a gentle stream of autos coming out and in of the tree dump. 

A number of metropolis buildings had been broken and Lindsay mentioned a part of the brand new water tank had been broken as nicely.

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Youngsters performed in tree wells underneath the watchful information of fogeys as fallen timber strewed throughout the Veterans Memorial Park close to the river stroll.

The Lake County Courthouse was closed as metropolis employees cleaned up just a few giant break up timber. Throughout the road on the publish workplace, blue steel roofing lay wrapped round poles however the lights had been on inside and postal supply individuals had been out and about.

The Dakota State College campus was closed Friday as crews labored to wash up fallen timber.

A block down from the campus, Pat Bulick surveyed the harm to the house she’s lived in for the reason that Sixties and raised her children. Fortunately, solely branches had fallen on her roof. Unluckily, the tree within the yard had been uprooted and leaned throughout the shed.

“That is simply the way it goes,” she mentioned. “I do not know the place to start out.”