A series of severe storms over the weekend damaged buildings, killed livestock, and left one person dead.
Straight line winds associated with one thunderstorm on Friday night toppled a mobile home in the Town of Fort Thompson killing a man inside. The Red Cross opened a shelter in the town to assist area residents who had damaged or lost homes.
The same storm system also spawned an EF-2 tornado that tore out power lines and destroyed buildings near the town of Hereford in Mead County.
Weekend storms also brought reports of grapefruit sized hail. Large wind driven hail is blamed for killing livestock in some areas.
Sunday night a second tornado touched down near the town of Ralph in the northwest part of the state. Damage assessments are being made this morning.
Susan Sanders is with the National Weather Service in Rapid City.
“Some of those storms were very intense. We had pictures of six-inch in diameter hail so, that’s very large. The storm that produced to tornado northeast of Rapid City also had some very strong straight line winds with it. Those winds blew over semis on the interstate and caused some damage in addition to the tornado damage,” says Sanders.
On Saturday night lightning from a thunderstorm over Rapid City may have started an apartment building on fire. Residents describe a loud boom before fire consumed part of the roof. The fire caused major structural damage and sent one person to the hospital for smoke inhalation. An official with the Rapid City Fire Department says investigators are working to determine the exact cause.
Weather Service officials say more severe storms are possible in the coming days.
