Two tornadoes hit either end of South Dakota in a recent storm outbreak. Though homes are destroyed, authorities say the worst seems to have been avoided in the EF2 and EF3 twisters.
After a small vortex touched down in rural Deuel County, an EF3 tornado eventually met the community of Clear Lake June 29.
Local sheriff Cory Borg said the damage could have been significantly worse for a tornado with estimated wind speeds in the mid-100s, especially considering the scale of activity.
“The storm season was relatively low until Saturday night, then it picked up pretty fast," Borg said. "We had a lot of reports or tornadic activity in the county from west at Clear Lake, to Altamont, down by Toronto, and the Lake Cochrane and Gary areas.”
All told, a home was destroyed, damages were reported, and two non-life-threatening injuries were tallied.
Jackson County saw similar damage, with a tornado destroying a farmstead and a trailer home. Ultimately, the two residents of that trailer home were dealt non-life-threatening injuries.
Local sheriff Tucker Amiotte said the worst of the damage was to farms, with thousands of dollars’ worth of livestock and farm equipment lost. He said this hasn’t been a normal storm season.
“This has been a kind of goofy year," Amiotte said. "It’s been dry up until May. We usually get hailstorms. When we arrived down there, on our way we saw a truck laying on its side. He was alright, some people were helping him said ‘did you look at that house?’ Right behind me, I went back there and checked on it and it was gone. I mean, just total devastation.”
Kadoka tallied a weaker EF2, which means wind speeds of about 125 miles an hour, still strong enough to do severe damage or level a home. Amiotte said the location was critical in this storm.
“Where it hit is pretty sparsely populated, approximately five miles south of Kadoka on the White River," Amiotte said. "Part of the tornado was on the exterior boundaries of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and it was a well-oiled machine with the neighbors. Thank God there wasn’t more destruction.”
All wind speed estimates, and EF ratings, are provided by the National Weather Service.