Storm damage seen across the county

Severe weather made a strong appearance in Southwest Iowa on June 11.

Montgomery County Emergency Management coordinator Brian Hamman said while the storms were strong, the county avoided the serious damage seen in other counties in Southwest Iowa.

“The majority of the damage was mostly trees and downed lines from trees that fell on lines or poles. The worst thing I saw was a large tree limb and power pole that fell on a car west of Coburg. It’s mainly just tree damage around the county, and it was really focused in the southwest corner of the county, south of old Hwy 34 and west of Highway 48. Red Oak had a couple of tree limbs down, as well as in Villisca and Stanton. But overall, the damage was really focused in that southwest corner,” Hamman said.

One of the biggest threats of the storm was straight line winds. Winds in excess of 70 mph reportedly overturned nine semis in Western Iowa. In Page and Fremont counties, straight line winds knocked down power lines and limbs, causing outages, and in Sidney, the winds blew the roof off the city’s post office. Hamman said Montgomery County didn’t see winds that strong.

“I think the highest wind that was recorded, west of Red Oak, was 62 mph. Overall, I’d say we got pretty fortunate compared to Fremont and Page counties. I know Shenandoah took a pretty big hit, as well as down around the Thurman area. Overall, I think we were probably pretty lucky this go-round,” commented Hamman.

Hamman said he hoped these recent bouts of severe weather weren’t a worrisome sign of things to come for the rest of the summer.

“It started out pretty mild as far as severe weather. Last year, it seemed the severe weather ended pretty early in the year. I just hope it stays mild and we don’t have much, but if it does, we’re prepared for it and we’ll take it as it comes. The biggest thing is people taking care of themselves and taking shelter when the warnings and watches are posted, and tuning into local media or weather apps. Just because the sirens aren’t sounding doesn’t mean there’s not severe weather, and that severe weather won’t occur,” said Hamman.

Peak rainfall estimates in the county from the June 11 storms was around 2 inches.