City details storm damage, cleanup effort

One person died Thursday in Sioux Falls, and there were other fatalities statewide, as dozens of communities now begin cleaning up from Thursday’s storm that brought hurricane-like winds to the state.

Photo by Tea Storm Chasers

In Sioux Falls, one woman died in the central part of the city during the storm.

“We can’t share the specific information about that individual yet, but I would just like to offer my thoughts and prayers and the thoughts and prayers of this community,” Mayor Paul TenHaken said. “That family is waking up this morning with a very hard situation.”

The fatality occurred because of a fallen tree as a woman was going to move her car, said Aj Towne, the founder of Tea Storm Chasers.

Another woman died from injuries in an accident on 250th Street near 464th Avenue just south of Colton, Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead said.

“In that situation, a husband and wife were driving home – they live in Wentworth – and that wall cloud, the wall of dust and dirt and debris hit them,” he said. “They slowed down to probably under 5  miles per hour because of the almost zero visibility from the blowing debris and a chunk of wood came through the window of the car.”

The victim, 61-year-old Wendy Lape from Wentworth, died Friday morning from her injuries.

The National Weather Service has determined it was a derecho that hit the region. Here’s what that means:

The worst of the damage in Sioux Falls was between 22nd and 33rd streets and Cliff and Minnesota avenues, said Towne, whose storm chasers blanketed the city assessing damage.

“It was definitely hurricane-like weather that moved through the area,” he said.

This photo posted by Augustana  University shows extensive tree damage on the campus.

An estimated 35,000 customers were left without power in Sioux Falls the surrounding region, said Steve Kolbeck, principal manager of Xcel Energy-South Dakota.

There are 10,500 remaining without power, he said. That includes 5,300 in Sioux Falls, 1,550 in Salem and 1,000 in Bridgewater.

“Our crews have been working through the night,” he said. “We have all schools, all hospitals and the water reclamation plant are all back on.”

Photo by Tea Storm Chasers

The damaged will be assessed from a helicopter today, he said.

“This is and will be a multiday event for us,” Kolbeck said.

City crews are out clearing trees from the streets and right of ways and repairing traffic signals, said Andy Berg, city engineer.

Photo by Tea Storm Chasers

“We have them on generators in the primary intersections where there’s damage being repaired,” he said.

Stay away from downed power lines, TenHaken added.

Photo by Tea Storm Chasers

“We’re still working to get a lot of intersections open. Please treat all the intersections as four-way stops,” he said.

Outside the city, conditions were worse, Towne said.

“Down in Tea, there are buildings that are absolutely destroyed, roofs are gone in Tea, shingles got blown off houses, but within the Sioux Falls area, we haven’t really seen buildings destroyed like we did in Salem and Tea.”

Damage in Tea from Tea Storm Chasers

“I just want to really express my thoughts and prayers to all the communities impacted by this, not just Sioux Falls,” he said. “A lot of people impacted right now are struggling with the damage of what’s happened in the last several hours.”

Statewide damage

For the state, it was an unprecedented weather event, Gov. Kristi Noem said.

“The amount of communities that are impacted right now, we just haven’t seen in our state before.”

Damage reports have come in from 28 communities, she said.

“We have had loss of life in the state of South Dakota. More details I’m sure will be coming out soon about those,” she said. “Be praying for these families.”

The state’s emergency operations center is coordinating with the counties impacted, and an emergency declaration was issued so towns and counties can start evaluating how to respond and possibly qualify for federal disaster relief.

“That allows us to use state resources. That allows us to make emergency purchases,” Noem said.

Individuals with property loss need to call their insurance provider, she added. The state also has activated the National Guard.

“We had many people in nursing homes who were displaced because of damage to their buildings,” she said, adding the state is helping them find permanent locations.

“We’ve also been looking at schools, giving them recommendations if they’ve had damage.”

There was “incredible damage” in Castlewood, she added. That includes the community’s school. Twenty National Guard members will be coming in to help with the damage, which included dozens of homes.

Fifty Guard members also are going to Madison to help. Nearby communities of Ramona and Wentworth also were “incredibly impacted,” the governor said.

In Salem, all nursing home residents were displaced when a roof was ripped off the building.

Photo by Tea Storm Chasers

“They have been finding long-term facilities for all of them,” Noem said. “We are going to utilize Department of Corrections work-release individuals to help that city in particular.”

Buildings also went down on herds of cattle, and some farms were essentially wiped out, she added.

Photo by Tea Storm Chasers

Tea Storm Chasers traveled Highway 81 during the worst of the storm, and “you can hear the howl” in its live feed, Towne said.

“It was definitely a scary experience to be in. We could actually see rotation off to the east, so there was ground rotation with it. We could feel our vehicle moving as far as lifting up.”

The city of Sioux Falls has opened its emergency operations center and started a website to answer questions about debris cleanup. Visit siouxfalls.org/storm.

Fees will be waived through May 22 at the Sioux Falls Regional Landfill for those disposing of storm debris.

Residents also can call 211 with questions or if they need help with handling the storm damage.