Hail Storm Pummels Buildings, Crops In South Dakota

A fast-moving storm pummeled the small community of Newell on Tuesday night, blasting through buildings and devastating crops. Wind, hail, and rain came in a flash, and the storm’s ferocity took many of the area’s residents by surprise. On Wednesday morning, piles of leaves, branches and debris littered the streets of Newell, a town of about 600 people about 25 miles east of Belle Fourche in Butte County. Windows were shattered and corn stalks stripped clean, bare stalks hanging limply. Mayor Mike Keolker measured the rate of the rain at one point as 25 inches an hour. Officially, the total rainfall within the city was 1.46 inches at the Belle Fourche Irrigation District office.