Limbs Down, Crops Flattened, Stuctures Damaged
Saturday evening brought heavy rain and high winds across O’Brien County, once again. The storms redeveloped through the night bringing, first golf ball sized hail and near sunrise, according to weather.gov, baseball sized hail. The National Weather Service reported significant damage from these storms to cars, homes and crops near the Primghar and Sutherland areas.
Corn fields south of Paullina and across O’Brien County are reported as flattened. Mill Creek Park near Paullina incurred significant tree damage from the early evening storm that blasted through the area.
A machine shed on the Darrell Triplett property on Highway 59 between Paullina and Primghar was destroyed. The structure was just repaired from storm damage that took the roof in 2021.
Dozens of large tree branches adjacent to the golf course and in airport property as well as in the campgrounds are down. One trailer suffered a stick being blown into its skin. No injuries were reported.
Travis Scott, O’Brien County Conservation Director said, while removing branches that could pose risk, said he felt that the damage at the park were from winds reaching 50 miles per hour. He said the heavy leaf cover and tree stress from drought most likely caused the unusually high damage. Others estimate the wind speeds and 60 or 65 miles per hours.