Thunderstorm downs trees, moves equipment

The brief but violent thunderstorm that passed through the Odessa area last Sunday evening left damage and much debris in its wake. The sky turned very black indeed, as the storm clouds blew in and the rain poured heavily for several minutes. After the storm passed through, the town of Odessa lost power, but it was restored within about five minutes.

Area residents reported damage and other results of the storm to The Record. At the country home of Kelly (Kissler) and Don Korpinen southwest of town, a set of drills was pushed by the wind for quite a distance.

“While we were gone the wind pushed the drills from in front of our shop all the way to the fuel barrels, not knocking one single barrel over. The hitch went in between the loading chute and the first barrel stand. We were very lucky things didn’t end up worse than this!” said Kelly. “The drills are quite heavy and were up on a farmhand jack. We also discovered three-fourths of the roof on the meat shop had been ripped off, and a huge grain tank fell over on the large BBQ that we use for Deutches Fest. Fortunately, the ladder on the grain tank landed on the part of the trailer used to lift the lid off, so we will be able to use it for Deutches Fest!” The Korpinens serve food from their JonathINN’s booth at Fest.

They also reported that as they were driving home during the storm, a neighbor’s cattle were running the fence line looking for safety.

In another report from northeast of town near Lamona, Tammy Carlson Tokas snapped a picture of the approaching dust cloud that preceded the rain storm.

At the farm of Neil and Cheryl Jeske, due north of town, a tree in the yard was uprooted, falling over onto a child’s swingset and destroying it. The swingset had been built by Neil’s father, Art Jeske for his children when they were small and had stood ever since.

The damage within the town appeared to be not quite as severe as it was in the country. Some rooftop TV antennas had been bent and whipped around quite a bit. Garbage cans were blown into neighbors’ yards and anything not tied down was very likely to have been moved.

A large, older tree in the front yard of an east Third Avenue residence was uprooted, taking out a large section of fence when it toppled over in her yard. On Dobson Road, two dead trees in a resident’s front yard were blown down into the street. The homeowner quickly removed them from the street using his pickup and carted them away the next morning.

A tree located on the creek bank along the parking lot of Heritage Church had a large branch split off from the main trunk. But it did not break off all the way and remained upright. Elsewhere in town, branches and leaves littered the streets everywhere. The town crew, having just run the street sweeper down First Avenue the previous Friday, were disappointed at having to run it again on Monday. But run it they did, and the mess was largely cleaned up by the end of the day.

But all over town folks were busy cleaning up Monday morning, finding their lost items and putting things back in their proper places. What looks like a computer mat (floor protector) landed in front of The Record’s front doors, so anyone missing such an item can come down to retrieve it at their convenience.