Wind, hail rips Dupree area

By Steve Miller, Journal staff

Vernon Starr, his son Jess, hired man Bill Clark and several neighbors were vaccinating and ear tagging cattle on the Starr ranch, trying to finish up and get to shelter before a storm hit Tuesday evening.

They didn't make it.

The sky darkened and began spewing walnut-size hail, Vernon Starr's wife, Sue, said Wednesday. High winds roared across the prairie and through the ranch near Dupree, tipping over a semi-truck and trailer, knocking down feed tanks, blowing away heavy steel feed bunks, and blowing out windows in vehicles and the ranch house.

The cattle crew scattered, seeking shelter from the hail and flying debris. They couldn't make it to the wooden barn. Some tried to find shelter around the chute they had been using. A couple of them went into the steel pole barn just as the top and sides of it blew off, Sue Starr said.

Vernon crawled under a horse trailer that had blown against a corral.

The wind tore off pieces of a steel windbreak and sent them flying overhead.

Sue watched from the house as the storm hit, then sought shelter in the basement. "The end of the house was shaking. I could feel the wind blowing under my basement door, so I knew the windows in the house were broken," she said. All but three windows were blown out.

The storm took most of the shingles off the roof and sucked insulation from the attic down into the house. Either the wind or a steel feed bunk that came through the yard took the front deck off, she said.

Across the road from the ranch, an inactive 180-foot metal telephone tower blew down.

But no one was hurt.

The Starrs also lost no livestock in the storm, but some horses suffered bruises from hail and flying debris, Sue Starr said Wednesday.

She said neighbors and friends arrived Tuesday night and Wednesday to help clean up.

No tornado was confirmed, but several people in Dupree said they saw funnel clouds in the direction of the Starr ranch, she said.

Although the National Weather Service had not yet confirmed a tornado by Wednesday afternoon, Ziebach County emergency management director Mike Burgee said the damage looked like it was caused by a tornado.

Other ranches and some places in town also suffered damage, but Burgee said that damage looked like it was caused by straight winds, as well as hail.

The NWS reported 62-mph gusts at the Faith airport at 5:25 p.m. Tuesday, just before a tornado warning was issued for Faith. Shortly after, a tornado warning was issued for Dupree, according to Mitchell Erickson, a hydro-meteorological technician with the NWS in Rapid City.

Along a seven- or eight-mile-long strip, the hail and wind storm also ripped a porch and garage off a double-wide mobile home, tipped over a motor home and moved a 2-1/2-ton truck across Thunder Butte Road, Burgee said.

In town, hail broke out windows, and an old bin at the grain elevator blew down, he said.

The storm blew down some power poles north of Dupree, so the town was without electricity until Moreau-Grand Electric crews restored power about 9 p.m., he said.

Burgee said he hasn't figured a dollar amount for damage yet. He said Federal Emergency Management Agency officials are scheduled to visit next week and make a preliminary damage assessment.

He said the area has been hit hard by weather several times over the past year, beginning with a flood in June, a hail storm last summer, the November blizzard, and more snowstorms this spring, followed by flooding that washed out some county roads.

Tuesday night's storm also hit Eagle Butte, which had some hail damage, according to Russ Korzeniewski, director of programs and services for the Black Hills Area Chapter of the American Red Cross.

The wind was still blowing hard on Wednesday in Dupree, Burgee said.

In Rapid City, winds reached 49 mph on Wednesday at the NWS office near downtown.

Meanwhile, snow fell Wednesday over parts of the Black Hills, although accumulations of less than an inch were expected, Erickson said.

He said winds were expected to diminish overnight and reach only 15-25 mph today, with highs in the lower 60s to low 70s.

Contact Steve Miller at 394-8415 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com.