Just a little wind: Residents rally after severe storm

Residents of the communities of New Rockford and Sheyenne woke with a start on Sunday, July 8, around 3:30 a.m., as winds at speeds of up to 100 mph whipped through their neighborhoods. The National Weather Service's Bismarck, N.D. office had issued a warning for this severe weather event just minutes before.

Many locals ran for the basement of their homes, while others headed for the room in their home where they felt the most safe. Amazingly, some slept through the storm.

The ensuing damage was evident early on. Residents witnessed damage to their property as the winds blew through.

"I looked out the window and saw a tree land on the playhouse Grandpa Gary built us," recalled 10-year-old Tillie Swart of New Rockford.

In the midst of the storm, the electricity went out throughout the county, leaving most residents in the dark.

As soon as the storm passed, volunteers from the ambulance and fire department went door-to-door across New Rockford and Sheyenne checking on residents. Everyone was safe and uninjured, but both towns' neighborhoods had changed in a big way: hundreds of trees were on the ground, appearing as though they had been "pushed" over by the high winds.

When the sun began to rise just an hour or two later, residents emerged from their homes to survey the damage. Big, beautiful trees that used to border the streets and shade backyards had fallen, blocking roadways, covering cars and crashing onto the roofs of homes throughout New Rockford and Sheyenne. Snapped power lines lay all over town in New Rockford, indicating that electricity might not be restored for days.

Public Works Superintendent Bruce Hirchert received a call around 5:30 a.m. The motorist on the line reported that there were pieces of steel from the airport strewn across U.S. Highway 281 just north of New Rockford. The airport's hangar had come apart, leaving a trail of airplane parts, roof tin and debris about a mile long. Other public facilities on the north side of New Rockford were hit hard as well. Dozens of trees in New Rockford's city park, golf course and cemetery lay on the ground with their roots exposed.

The National Weather Service described it this way: "An intense storm moved across North Dakota on the morning of July 8th, 2018. This storm produced significant straight line wind damage along its path. The worst of the damage occurred in and around the New Rockford, N.D. area." That's right, no tornado. Just nasty winds that were powerful enough to snap and uproot hundreds of trees and tear apart the airport hangar.

Even though the many properties in Eddy County's communities were battered, the can-do spirit of their residents shined through. By 8 a.m. residents had already begun cleaning up the mess, removing trees from their yards and helping neighbors do the same.

The City of New Rockford's maintenance crew, outfitted with a payloader and dump trucks, went through town and began the daunting task of removing the downed trees that blocked the streets, avenues and alleys. The landfill was open by late morning and residents were encouraged to bring loads of downed trees and debris to be dumped there at no charge.

At an 11 a.m. special meeting, the New Rockford City Commission issued a disaster declaration for the city and began coordinating efforts for the recovery efforts ahead.

Volunteers loaded chainsaws, hooked up trailers and drove through town offering assistance to residents. A group from Bethel Assembly of God in Carrington made the trek to New Rockford and offered assistance to residents and parishioners. Among the Bethel group was the Topp family, using their T - T Ranch equipment to remove fallen trees from boulevards, backyards and homes. Other members of the group raked and picked up downed debris and handed out water and snacks to volunteers and residents.

The same happened in Sheyenne, where locals helped each other clean up as much as possible. Tree contractors and volunteer crews came from miles around, offering assistance. Power was restored to the City of Sheyenne by 2 p.m. on Sunday. The city's well, however, did not have electricity until late Monday morning.

Northern Plains Electric Cooperative reported that power had been restored to nearly all of its rural customers by 6:30 p.m., Sunday.

New Rockford's distribution outages were widespread and significant, however. Crews from Otter Tail Power Company worked many hours Sunday and Monday and into Tuesday to restore power to the city. An area on the north side of town near the city park was among the first to get back on the grid around 8 p.m., Sunday night. Most of the downtown area power was restored by 10 p.m., and crews ended their work for the night notifying residents that it would likely take another 24 hours to restore power to the entire community.

On Monday morning, Tiffany Schaefer announced via Facebook that the Rockford Cafe had power and was open for business! That was just the beginning, as several others arrived at their downtown businesses that morning to find power and internet services had been restored, and immediately declared that they would also be open. Others opened for business using generators to power their stores.

Clean up continued Monday, as workers maneuvered lifts, payloaders, skid steers and chainsaws to remove the hundreds of trees that still remained.

"I'm very pleased and proud of our city. We started this storm with no injuries or fatalities, and I hope it stays that way. The trees don't care if they are removed in 10 hours or 10 days. Be patient and be safe," cautioned New Rockford Commission President Calvin Packard Monday.

By Monday evening power had been restored "to all safe and undamaged residential electrical services in New Rockford," according to a post from the New Rockford Fire Department.

On Tuesday morning, the Eddy County Commission issued a disaster declaration for the entire county. Eddy County Emergency Manager Jess Earle updated the commissioners on recovery efforts and noted that Sheyenne had requested equipment from the county to aid their clean up efforts. The county offered use of a dump truck. They also planned to contact the North Dakota Game and Fish Department and North Dakota Forest Service to request assistance for clearing Warsing Dam, as fallen trees made the main entrance inaccessible. Notably, several massive cottonwood trees with bases approximately 15 feet in diameter were down in the park. Trees in Hendrickson Park had also suffered major damage.

On Tuesday afternoon, Deb Belquist coordinated volunteer efforts to assist with the clean up at New Rockford's public facilities and on private property for residents in need. In her post to the Facebook page "Volunteer New Rockford" she wrote, "We need able bodies and equipment." People with chainsaws, dump trailers, payloaders and skid steers with grapple forks were requested to help at the park, baseball field, cemetery, golf course and museum.

Recovery efforts will continue for some time, as there are still many trees down in the facilities noted above. Then, once the fallen have been removed, work will begin to replant what was lost.

Residents and property owners are encouraged to report all damage, costs of repair and volunteer hours to Eddy County Emergency Manager Jess Earle at (701) 650-2085 or to the city auditor in New Rockford at (701) 947-2461. The county is working to establish a monetary value on the damage that occurred throughout the county, and the only way to do that is through documentation and reporting.

To see a gallery of photos of the storm damage and clean up, go to https://www.newrockfordtranscript.com/photos/07_16_2018