After the storm

- One day after a hail storm battered Callaway, another storm beat down on areas in the eastern part of Custer County. Monday evening, June 6, hail the size of ping-pong balls and bigger and driven by high winds caused extensive damage in Ansley, Mason City, Litchfield and surrounding areas.

In Ansley, village crews had to remove a large spruce tree from power lines and replace one power pole. In town, most damage to buildings is to roofs and siding.

Between Ansley and Mason City, the siding on the north and west side of Jim and Pat Hoblyn’s home is shredded. Pat said they lost five big windows, one smaller one and two glass doors, all on the north and west of the house. Jim reported an overturned pivot and broken windows in two tractors and a pickup. They found water in dressers and hailstones and glass across the rooms. Damage means they will throw away bedding, clothing, mattresses, furniture and more. Pat said their insurance agent said to not put any of the items covered in glass in the washing machine as it may ruin the machine.

The Hoblyn house doesn’t have a basement. “We stood in the living room and watched the windows blow,” Pat said.

The house of James Focken near Ansley suffered a destroyed roof, broken windows and doors, dented gutters and more. An old mail box that was in front of the house for decor was blown around the house into an alfalfa fields. “The alfalfa was a foot and a half tall,” Focken said. “It took her down to ground.” He has photos of hail “packed like snow” in the yard.

In Mason City, Chelsie Campbell said she’s been told the 101-year old house she owns with her husband Jon sustained the worst damage in town.

“It may be because of all the windows,” Campbell said. They lost 13 windows with at least eight of them being original to the house.

“Hail shot 15 feet into the house,” Campbell reported. “There was glass literally everywhere.” One of the Campbell’s five children, ten-year-old Opie was asked what it was like during the storm. “We couldn’t hear each other. It was like thunder,” she said.

The Campbells have lived in the house only two years. “We closed on it two years ago tomorrow,” Campbell said on June 7.

Members of the community turned out to help each other in the aftermath. “Several guys we didn’t even know brought plastic and plywood,” Campbell said.

In Litchfield the Trotter Garden Shoppe sustained extensive damage from the recent hail storm. Ten rows of cabbage, countless rows of tomatoes, peppers, onions, asparagus, beets and blackberries were completely destroyed.

Manager Gary Lawrence stated that the large hail damaged every poly-carbonate roof pane in the greenhouse itself and shredded a double thickness of 6 mil plastic that covered each of the two hoop greenhouses.

The Garden Shoppe typically offers both plants and vegetables for sale as well as providing vegetables for school students in Loup City and Litchfield. The excess vegetables are contracted to be sold at HyVee in Kearney. The crops are a complete loss.

Because of the excess damage to the plastic weed barrier and the water lines below them, the entire spring 2022 plantings will have to be torn up and planted again if the growing season will allow.

Crops didn’t escape with corn, alfalfa and even pastures beaten down. Dale Zoerb said he is in a “wait and see mode” as some justemerged corn may survive but the bigger corn is most likely a total loss. See page A6 for a photo and more from Zoerb.

On Tuesday, June 7, Pat Hoblyn said they spent the day cleaning up the exterior and collecting five lick-tubs of debris. They hadn’t yet been able to do much inside. She said they are trying to figure out what to do next.

It will now be a waiting game as Custer County residents and producers wait to hear from insurance adjusters and contractors with hopes that materials for repairs will not be in short supply.

Here are some reports from the National Weather Service for the June 6 storm:

• 5:44 p.m., 1.5 inch hail, lots of hail with largest ping-pong size, 14 mi. S of Thedford

• 6:10 p.m., 1.5 inch hail, leaves stripped from trees, 14 mi. NE of Stapleton

• 7 p.m., 1.5 inch hail, five miles south of Merna

• 7:29 p.m., 1.75 inch hail, power lines down across the tracks, Ansley

• 7:39 p.m., 70 mph wind gusts, three mi. NW of Litchfield

• 7:40 p.m., siding damage by hail driven by wind, Litchfield

Seventy mph winds were also reported in Hazard, Ravenna, Wood River and Hastings.

Shattered windows and windshields were reported in Ravenna and northeast of Pleasanton.

Mona Weatherly Above is a photo of the ruined roof on the home of James Focken east of Ansley after June 6 storm. Large hail and high winds also broke glass in three windows and a door, even those under the porch roof. Focken pointed out dents in the downspouts of the gutters and broken weather-stripping as well as hail-dented garage doors. Focken said hailstones were blown 12 to 15 feet across rooms inside the house.

Mona Weatherly Above, top, is the Chelsie and Jon Campbell home in Mason City on June 7. On June 6, hail and high winds took out the original glass in at least eight 101-year-old windows. The photo directly above is one of the windows from the inside after being covered with plastic and plywood. The hail broke two panes of glass - the original window inside and the storm window on the outside.

Mona Weatherly Above left, is the interior of a bedroom on the north side of the Pat and Jim Hoblyn home between Ansley and Mason City. Pat Hoblyn said her inusrance person said to throw away any bedding, mattresses and clothes near broken windows and not to put any of it through the washing machine because shards of glass could ruin the machine. Pat and Jim Hoblyn stayed at a family member’s house after the storm. She said hail and glass were blown across rooms. Above right, is a close-up of the shredded siding on north and west sides of the Hobyln home after the June 6 storm.

Kelli Loos Cabbage and the plastic that protected them are both destroyed at the Trotter Garden Shoppe in Litchfield.

Chelsie Campbell Chelsie Campbell of Mason City holds one of the large hailstones that fell in the storm on June 6.