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High winds hit southeast side hardest
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · November 19, 2015
High winds tore off a roof, snapped telephone poles, toppled a truck trailer and knocked out power to a handful of customers in the southeast section of the city in a Nov. 11 storm.
Hardest hit were the industrial park and, just to its north, the commercial section along Cookson Drive.
One resident blew a tire on debris, trees lost mostly small- to medium-sized limbs and many businesses lost power for up to four hours after utility companies had to shut down service temporarily while fixing broken poles.
Utility workers blocked off Fawcett Drive from about 6 p.m. to nearly midnight to fix the broken poles, and West Branch Police Department helped keep traffic from turning down the street to reach businesses in the industrial park. Police Chief Mike Horihan said trucks trying to get to Procter & Gamble had to take a secondary entrance to reach the warehouse, which operates around the clock.
Strong winds made a truck trailer, parked behind Wausau Supply, 15 Fawcett Drive, scrape a few feet to the east before tipping over into the nearby mud and grass.
West Branch Community Schools Superintendent Kevin Hatfield wrote in an e-mail that the sump pumps at Hoover Elementary stopped, which led to about eight to 10 inches of water in the boiler room when he found the flooding about 7:45 p.m. Nov. 11. He said facilities director Joe Lande got the sump pumps working.
Michael Thompson, who owns Beautiful Land Products, 300 Cookson, said he got a call about 6:45 p.m. Nov. 11 that winds destroyed one of his buildings. He found a large storage shed, used for pots and soil, missing its roof, which scattered around Cookson Drive and South Fourth Street.
“I think it’s OK,” he said of the shed’s contents, after getting off the phone with his insurance company, “but power was cut to our production building.”
Dave Peden, who owns Dave’s Welding & Repair, 348 Cookson, said the storm blew away a metal awning, broke apart a tree at the south end of the lot, and caused a power outage that burned the power lines connected to his building.
“But we’re lucky,” he said. “It’s not below zero.”
Temperatures dropped to about 34 to 40 degrees after the rain and heavy wind blew in from the south, according to Wunderground.com.
Bob Van Ginkel, owner of Robert’s Towing on Division Street near the industrial park, said his fencing was damaged by wind-blown debris, but what hit the fence disappeared.
Shannon Charmichael, who lives near South Fourth and South Maple Street, said she picked up her daughter after the volleyball pep bus returned from the state playoffs in Cedar Rapids. The two were almost home when she drove over a board with a nail, popping her right rear tire.
Carmichael said she was home when the storm hit and saw large metal strips of warehouse roofing hit a nearby power line.
“Sparks went flying and that was pretty much the end of it,” she said, noting that power went out to buildings on Cookson Drive west of that strike. “It was quite an eventful night.”
Carmichael, Peden, Van Ginkel and others were picking up pieces of metal and wood Thursday morning.
Alliant Energy and Liberty Communications were out after the storm trying to reconnect service. On Fawcett Drive, Liberty staff used headlights to see in the dark to work.
West Branch High School Principal Shannon Bucknell said the winds were strong up on the hill, but the only real damage appeared to be to the United States flag, which was “tattered” by the storm.
City Administrator Matt Muckler said that aside from smaller branches falling from trees, the storm did not damage any city property. Herbert Hoover National Historic Site Maintenance Director Mike Torkelson said the storm only broke some small limbs and spread some debris.
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