Overnight storm destroys crops in southeast North Dakota

ECKELSON/SANBORN, N.D.-John and Joe Weber didn't think they were in for much of a storm when they woke up Tuesday morning.

"I got up, I didn't see any dark clouds," John said. "I didn't think anything of it, thought it was just wind. Then I heard the hail."

The Weber brothers live on the same land their parents first got in 1935. Their home is located on 101st Avenue Southeast, about a mile south of Interstate 94 at Exit 276. Joe said he and his brother have been living on the property since 1951.

"You could feel the house moving, the wind was so strong," Joe said.

After the storm moved through, the Weber brothers surveyed the damage on their property-three windows knocked out in their house, a quarter of the roof torn off a pole barn, and a silo built in 1984 knocked to the ground.

Hail and wind damaged a camper trailer and two cars. John said an insurance adjuster was coming out to look at the house Tuesday.

"I think we came out of it (the storm) not too bad," he said.

Reports of winds in excess of 70 miles per hour were reported to the National Weather Service office in Bismarck. A pole barn south of Sanborn was destroyed by the storm. Debris from the pole barn and equipment inside it was strewn in a line southeast of the pole barn's location.

Zack Hargrove, a meteorologist with National Weather Service Bismarck office, said there were no tornadoes during the storm. The damage was caused by increased hail amounts, straightline winds and "microbursts," when extremely strong winds come straight down from a strong thunderstorm and impact a specific area.

"We saw a lot of microburst or downburst signatures on the radar as this storm moved on east from Jamestown," Hargrove said.

He said the kind of damage reported near Sanborn, like the pole barn that appeared to have been blown apart, was likely caused by a microburst.

Farmers have reported that wind and hail destroyed crops near Buchanan, Spiritwood, Eckelson and Sanborn.

Gayne Gasal said he had about 30 quarter sections of crops damaged after strong thunderstorms moved through the Jamestown area Thursday morning.

"Everything east of the farm and north got beat up by the hail," he said.

Gasal's farm is located west of Spiritwood. He said between himself and his two sons they lost at least 10 quarter sections of corn and at least 20 quarter sections of soybeans. A quarter section of land equals 160 acres.

"It's hard to tell which of it is hail damage and which of it is wind damage," he said.

Gasal said it's possible some of the corn may be usable, depending on how developed the corn plants were and how much defoliation took place.

"If you have some defoliation, if it (the corn plant) is far enough along it can still be decent," he said.

As for the soybeans, Gasal said he didn't know.

"We'll have our fingers crossed," he said.

One area where Gasal felt fortunate was his farm house. He said there was only some tree damage near his farm house.

"I tell you we were pretty lucky around the yard, no damage here, a handful of trees," he said, 'I've seen it worse over the years."

Patti Rondestvedt woke up to the wind and hail uprooting trees and taking off part of the roof on the pole barn at her residence near Spiritwood.

"The wind blew so hard we got water inside the bay window," she said. "We had brand new glass put in last year."

A large evergreen tree by the road fell over and another was split in two. She said the wind blew some of the steel roof panels from the pole barn into the field east of her property. Rondestvedt said she has a contractor working on repairing the pole barn's roof.