WOONSOCKET — Steve and Lynelle Tornow were busy raking up tree debris and branches next to Lake Prior in Woonsocket. And they weren’t the only ones.
Residents in the small Sanborn County community with a population of approximately 650 on Monday morning were in the midst of cleaning up damage from a storm that struck the town mid-afternoon on Sunday, July 20. The storm uprooted trees, downed branches and scattered debris from one end of the community to the other.
There were no serious injuries reported as a result of the storm, and Steve Tornow said everyone was thankful, but the damage to buildings and property was extensive and a reminder of what a South Dakota summer storm can do.
“I guess it’s Mother Nature showing us who’s boss,” Tornow told the Mitchell Republic. “We’re just glad there were no injuries or anything like that. You know, all this other stuff can be fixed eventually.”
Winds damage trees, buildings
There will be plenty to fix and clean up in Woonsocket for a while to come.
Estimated winds ranging upwards of 80 mph caused extensive damage throughout the community, knocking out power and downing branches. Different kinds of damage could be found all across town, from trees and branches piled up on lawns and over roads, to extensive damage to buildings nestled around the 7th Street thoroughfare in the heart of town.
Residents, as well as volunteers from the surrounding region Monday morning, were driving loaders, squeezing the trigger on chainsaws to clear trees from the road and swinging hammers to seal up broken windows. The streets were a buzz of activity as people migrated from spot to spot.
Lynelle Tornow, who was helping her husband clear debris on the west edge of Lake Prior in town, said the wind and rain arrived suddenly at about 3 p.m. Sunday.
“We were just sitting there and all of a sudden, wham. It was hail, rain. We couldn’t even see out our windows,” Lynelle Tornow said. “And then we were looking at the stuff in our yard getting all smashed up. It was nothing important, you know, thank goodness.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Lynelle Tornow said she and her husband did not suffer any serious damage at their home in Woonsocket, but parts of the rest of the community were not as lucky. She pointed out several buildings around the lake that had taken damage, and noted that a camper or two at the city’s in-town campground were lost in the winds.
A local bank, a small repair shop and the local elevator were all among several buildings in town that showed signs of damage from the winds that swept through town.
“And then a little further east, our friend has a bunch of storage units. I bet 10 of them are just destroyed. And there are people’s belongings all over the place,” Lynelle Tornow said.
Across the lake to the east, Steve Dammann, who operates D&L Service & Tires in Woonsocket, reflected on the damage to his building. Dammann said the winds that whipped through town lifted the roof off one of his buildings, carried it over an adjacent building and deposited it next to another building that incurred damage as a result.
Dammann said he was in his building, which dates to the 1930s, at the time of the storm, and described the incident with a mix of humor and awe.
“I don’t do much but drink coffee and sit in my chair. And it took my chair,” Dammann said. “It came, dropped down, and took the roofs up. And we were in there. We watched the roof go up. We were in there and we were debating – we were underneath a steel bench – and we were debating whether we should stay there. Then we decided to go to the car wash, which I own, too, because that was still standing. So we were good.”
Dammann said the roof on his shop was insulated with spray foam, which he suspects kept the roof together as the wind lifted it, preventing it from splintering into a thousand pieces and joining the rest of the debris flying through the air.
ADVERTISEMENT
But the roof did end up right next to and slightly leaning against a building owned by Ken Anderson. The local artist said he had renovated his building — once home to the local Knights of Columbus — as extra bedroom space when family visited or during hunting season when hunters need a local place to stay.
It was going to need some work following Sunday’s storm, however. An interior wall near the kitchenette in the building showed signs of bowing from the mass of the neighboring roof pressing against the outside wall. The damage to the north wall of the building was also evident from the outside.
“As you can see it modified the wall into a little more of an angle than I prefer,” said Anderson, who had set up garbage cans to catch water leaking in from the ceiling. “It came through very, very fast and stayed too long. All the rain was parallel to the ground.”
Anderson, who also owns and operates Anderson Studio and Gallery in Woonsocket, said he was at his home when the winds came through and that it is unclear what fate the future holds for the building. He said his insurance agency has already been in contact with him.
He doesn’t want to tear the building down, but if it comes to that he will go through with it, he said.
“The thing is, it may cost more to repair than it does to tear it down. And I hate to tear something down, but I’m going to be 75. I don’t have time to mess with stuff like that,” Anderson said.
Witnesses said much of the debris that originated from north of 7th Street in the midtown area of the community – where the local elevator and D&L Service & Tires are located – ended up flying through the air and smashing into other structures on the south side of the street.
ADVERTISEMENT
That’s what happened at the Woonsocket branch of the FNBO bank. The bank was closed Monday morning to clean up after flying debris Sunday smashed through some of the northside windows of an office. Crews had sealed up the windows with plywood, but there was water damage inside being tended to.
Rob Parker, a facility engineer for FNBO who works out of Mitchell and lives in Spencer, was on site coordinating cleanup and repair. The cleanup had been a joint effort of local contractors, volunteers and bank employees who came in to check on the situation in between cleanup projects of their own.
Wood from somewhere else in town embedded itself in the bank roof, Parker said.
“The branch manager lives just north, and I came over from Spencer, and we just got to work,” Parker told the Mitchell Republic. “(The storm damaged) the windows and the roof. We had a bunch of two by fours sticking out of the roof. They were sticking straight up and down.”
The damage is inconvenient, he said, but structurally the building should be fine, he said. No employees were in the bank when the storm rolled through, and he expected the bank branch to be back open to the public sometime on Tuesday.
‘We’ve got to do our part’
While the damage is extensive, residents for the most part appeared thankful there were no serious injuries and that the damage wasn’t any worse.
All through the community, neighbors were helping neighbors and business owners assisted business owners as they assessed the damage. Though the severity of the storm may have been a surprise, the sight of neighbor helping neighbor was not.
ADVERTISEMENT
There was some cleanup needed at their home, but the Tornows wanted to get out and help. They were working their way around Lake Prior on a side-by-side Monday, tidying up as they went along. The lake is a point of pride for the community, Lynelle said, and they figured that was as good a place as any to concentrate their efforts.
Like many in town, they put the community and others before themselves.
“We wanted to go around the lake. This is the draw for the town, our little lake. So I said let’s just start with the lake. So we started over there in that corner and we’re working our way here,” Lynelle Tornow said. “And people are calling in. Should I bring my tractor? Should I bring my payloader? Everybody, I mean everybody, steps up. We’ve got to do our part. Our yard has stuff all over it, but that can wait.”
The town continued its cleanup as the day progressed, and residents tried to focus on the positives. Even the swans, famous residents and mascots for the local lake, had apparently made it through the storm. Lynelle Tornow said there was also a Canadian goose somewhere around the lake with four babies, something she was keeping an eye out for as she worked.
It will take a little time, but those working Monday expected Woonsocket would be back on its feet soon, thanks to neighbors helping neighbors, and a little help from above.
“Oh yeah, it will be fine. The good Lord just watched over everything and everyone,” Dammann said.
The Trust Project
