The Garden City Telegram

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Riding out the storm

Published 4/30/2009 in Local News

By SHAJIA AHMAD

sahmad@gctelegram.com

John Coker watched the wall cloud coming toward him while standing in the middle of the field and realized he had no other choice but to jump inside a tractor, put on his seat belt and ride out the storm.

"Once it hit, I couldn't see anything," he said. "It hit so fast I didn't even have time to make it to shelter."

Coker, a worker for Triangle H Grain and Cattle, said he was north of the Plymell Dairy when the high-speed winds struck, sending large pieces of hail and flying debris, which hit his tractor.

"To be honest, I thought I was fixing to die," Coker said. "It's just been about three weeks I've been in Garden City. I'm from Alabama, and I've never seen hail or been in a storm like this."

Officials are reporting severe damage from a tornado that touched down Wednesday night in southern Finney County, in addition to isolated storms that dropped golf-ball to softball-sized hail across parts of Haskell County.

Emergency responders have received reports of flipped over center pivot irrigation systems, snapped power line poles along U.S. Highway 83, several upturned and flattened mobile homes near Mimosa and Ponderosa courts, south of Garden City, and severe structural damage to Plymell Dairy, also south of town, said Finney County's emergency management coordinator Cathy Hernandez.

Dead and injured cows could be seen this morning near the fields of Plymell Dairy, and the storm damaged several buildings at the dairy, including a barn and mill house, Hernandez said.

Finney County Sheriff Kevin Bascue said deputies found debris from the dairy two miles south of the location. He added that minor injuries were reported from the storm damage, including a dairy worker whose foot was caught in a slammed door, but no serious injuries were reported, the sheriff said.

Dairy owners declined to comment on specific damage this morning.

"We're just busy trying to clean up right now," Beverly Sigafoose said.

West of Plymell, farmer Colby Drussel said windows were blown out of his house and high-speed winds caused damage to his roof. Grain bins belonging to his family's company, Drussel Seed & Supply, also caved in, he said.

Drussell, who found himself in one of his fields in Haskell County when the storm struck the area, said he looked up at a "greenish cloud that looked like a big mushroom, upside down."

"It was absolutely the most awesome cloud I've ever seen," Drussel said.

Plymell Elementary School was closed today due to broken windows and downed power lines in the area. School officials will be making a determination about tomorrow's classes later today, school officials said.

Downed power lines and debris from the storm closed a few roads south of Garden City Wednesday night, and a few county roads remain closed today.

Kirk Hutchinson, district public affairs manager with the Kansas Department of Transportation, said that because of power lines stretched across the road, KDOT closed U.S. 83 between Garden City and northern Haskell County between about 8 and 11 p.m. Wednesday. All highways in the area now are open.

John Ellerman, Finney County public works director, said the following county roads also were closed Wednesday night and will remain closed at least for part of the day today:

• Plymell Road between U.S. 83 and Road 14
• Road 14 between Plymell and TV roads
• West Fork Road between Parallel and Plymell roads

Ellerman said he's not sure yet when the roads will re-open.

"It's dependent on the power company and how fast they can get poles and lines off the road," he said.

Officials from the Dodge City National Weather Service said at least a few brief touchdowns and storms formed in Finney and Haskell counties starting at about 4 p.m. and ending around 9 p.m., but the most severe tornado formed southwest of Garden City at about 7 p.m. and moved south south-east into northern Haskell county.

The largest balls of hail -- four and a quarter inches -- were reported near Satanta and Sublette. Portions of western Finney County were most severely impacted by the hail, mostly nickel- and quarter-sized hail, officials said.

Haskell County Emergency Management Director Debbie Brown was not immediately available for comment this morning.

Officials did not have available rainfall amounts from the storm, but said the rain fell in storm areas about an inch or two per hour. In addition, the office received a report of two inches of rain in Sublette.

Lightning from the scattered storms also struck a vacated mobile home at about 7:15 p.m. at 2801 N. Eighth St., Lot 25, in Garden City, causing a fire that completely destroyed the home, Garden City Fire Chief Allen Shelton said.

No one was hurt in the incident because the family already had taken shelter in another location, Shelton said.

Weather officials did not have wind speeds available this morning but estimated that storms of this nature can carry speeds up to 80 mph.

A few clouds with an isolated thunderstorm are possible tonight after midnight, with a low of 49 degrees and east winds at 10 to 20 mph.

Web Editor Emily Behlmann contributed to this report.

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