by C. & G. Moritz, Gazette
Despite normally being a topic of conversation, the weather has truly dominated the talk of the town since April. This past weekend, Garretson and the surrounding area saw more damage as storms again moved through, bringing with it hurricane-force winds, tornadic activity, and hail.
On Wednesday evening, parents dressed in layers and hats, and wrapped in blankets as they watched their children play baseball at the Jaycees Sports Complex. The temperature that day maxed out at 55 degrees.
On Thursday, the weather warmed considerably, hitting the mid-70’s, and the temps kept climbing Friday and Saturday. The humidity began to increase as well, making for a muggy weekend.
This type of weather often brings a thunderstorm or two, but the storm that hit early Monday morning around 2:15 a.m. brought plenty of damage to Brandon and Sioux Falls, two areas which had already seen damage from the derecho that moved through on May 12.
A possible, but unconfirmed, tornado tore through Huset’s Speedway and Beaver Valley Lutheran Church in Brandon that morning, taking the roof from the racing suite and the roof of the church annex. In the fellowship hall at Beaver Valley Lutheran, the roof collapsed. This left all but the sanctuary exposed to the elements. At Huset’s, other damage occurred when a light pole fell onto the front stretch fence. Several trees went down in Sioux Falls, and power was lost to over 10,000 customers. Power also went out in portions of Dell Rapids when a transformer blew in the morning storm.
A second wave of storms came through around 3:00 p.m. on Monday, and produced funnel clouds and tornadic activity north of Garretson. Spotters confirmed a tornado on the ground near Sherman. Trees and branches fell, but no major property damage was reported. A tornado was also spotted south of Jasper, MN.
In Sherman there was a new culvert intended for installation picked up by the storm and dropped back down into the middle of a field just west of town.
“I don’t know if we had a proper tornado here,” said Darrin Trower of the Sherman town Board of Trustees. “It was certainly windy here though. When the storm came through I looked outside and saw the trees shaking and the wind howling. It was kind of scary for a while.”
Some roof damage and a lot of fallen branches all over town was most of what Sherman suffered.
“The biggest event was this, right here, up the street from my house,” Trower said. “This big tree right here completely blocking the road [at 3rd St & Zeliff Ave, Zeliff being main thruway of Sherman].”
Trower told the Gazette that the owner of the property had been talking about cutting the tree down anyway, but that they sure hadn’t planned on doing it like this. Residents from all over town, and even neighbors from surrounding farms and from Garretson, came up to help clear the debris.
Garretson itself had relatively little damage apart from a few smaller branches down, and some golf ball-sized hail from Monday morning’s storm.
A culvert was picked up and dropped into the middle of a field after Monday's storm in Sherman. Neighbors quickly gathered together to assess and remedy the damage from tree fall after Monday's storm in Sherman. Beaver Valley Lutheran Church pavilion, which received no damage despite the high winds that took off the roof of the church annex and fellowship wings. Photo by Dan Haygood Beaver Valley Lutheran Church cemetery. Photo by Dan Haygood
