Destructive force
After a thunderstorm roared through Killdeer Wednesday evening, several trees were uprooted onto homes, lightning ignited fires and a roof was partially torn off a local watering hole.
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After a thunderstorm roared through Killdeer Wednesday evening, several trees were uprooted onto homes, lightning ignited fires and a roof was partially torn off a local watering hole.
“It didn’t do anything to houses, it just grabbed trees,” said Dunn County Emergency Manager Denise Brew. “It was the most horrendous lightning I had ever seen.”
Brew said no injuries were reported.
While additional evaluation needs to be conducted on storm damages, the National Weather Service said the highest measured wind gust was 68 mph at 10:46 p.m.
As beeping noises of heavy machinery scooping up branches filled the air, residents trooped together to help clean up city streets Thursday.
One such resident was Randy Sandvick.
Sandvick owns a shop near Killdeer and said the building “shook as bad as it’s ever shook.”
With his industrial chain saw in hand, Sandvick was at the site of an uprooted pine tree among broken trees, helping slice the conifers to assist in their removal.
The uprooted pine Sandvick was helping cut had landed on the garage of Manley Truchan.
The fallen tree caused no damage to Truchan’s garage and he estimates the tree to have stood about 30-feet high.
“It looks like God took a walk through Killdeer and went, ‘This tree goes, this tree goes’ ... and gently set them on some houses,” Brew said.
Two fires ignited in town as a result of lightning strikes, with one hitting an electrical box and the other a tree, Brew said.
Some businesses also suffered damage.
Sarah Hoffman of Nana Lil’s Café said the restaurant’s exterior sign was ripped off. The building also experienced minor flooding.
Hellacious winds ripped off part of the Buckskin Bar & Grill’s roof, sent bricks flying and shattered a few windows.
Water was also leaking into the building.
No damage estimates were available.
Storm damage, however, will not affect Killdeer’s upcoming weekend festivities, which includes North Dakota’s oldest Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, the 87th Annual Killdeer Mountain Roundup Rodeo on Saturday and Sunday.
Tags: news, local, killdeer, storm, damage
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