Edwin and Mina Poppens woke in the middle of the night Tuesday, May 24th when they heard a big crack of thunder. Poppens said they went back to bed and the next morning discovered the damage done by the storm.
Harold Timmerman, with Lincoln County Emergency Management took photos with a drone after the storm damage and brought those to the Weather Service. Timmerman said they determined it was straight line winds. Timmerman added that a nearly 4,000 pound electrical box for switchgear for Southeastern electrical blew right off its cement pad.
Poppens’ farm place is located about 8 miles north of Lennox on Highway 17. He said they lost a Morton Building, three grain bins and two corn cribs. Wednesday evening debris could be seen strewn about the property and spread across the north field over a mile. Poppens pointed out that the wind took a light pole right out of the ground. He said the Morton Building was full of equipment and tools, at the time we spoke, the insurance agent had not been out to access the damage.
Mina said, “We were just thankful it didn’t hit the house, we have angels watching over us. All the other things can be replaced.”
Poppens built their farm place in 1983 and this was the first storm that caused severe damage to their property. Just down the road from the Poppens another building suffered storm damage. Doug Vanderwerf’s automotive repair shop, located at 27096 SD-17 had tin from the roof ripped right off. Vanderwerf said there was other damage to the soffits and the privacy fence. As we walked around the property Vanderwerf pointed out where a sign had blown from across the highway and slammed into the building, leaving a dent toward the top of the building. The horse trailer also sitting out in front of the property suffered damage...
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