WESSINGTON SPRINGS, S.D. -- Kim Christensen was driving his four-wheeler through Wessington Springs on Wednesday night, because he didn’t want to puncture a tire on his vehicle.
Wood, tin, nails and other debris -- the remains of homes and businesses no longer standing -- lay strewn throughout the streets, left in the wake of a tornado. Despite the structural damage, Christensen said the town’s people remained mostly physically unscathed.
“Everybody seems to be OK, as far as I know,” he said.
Christensen, a city council member, said he was sitting on the other side of town, taking pictures when the twister hit.
“I didn’t see it hit, but I could see the stuff in the rotation,” Christensen said. “That was close enough for me. I’m not a storm chaser.”
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He estimated the tornado hit close to the National Weather Service’s prediction, which timed the tornado’s arrival at 7:30 p.m.
“Whenever they said it was going to be here, believe me it was here,” Christensen said.
He said the rotation struck the east side of Wessington Springs, a town of about 1,000 people about 50 miles northwest of Mitchell in southeast South Dakota.
Businesses along that side of town -- Springs Auto, Prairie Lounge and the Hideout Bar & Grille -- were leveled.
The tornado knocked down power lines, collapsed homes and ripped the roofs off others.
“There’s houses that are completely leveled,” Christensen said. “A lot of damage. A lot of debri.”
Philip Schumacher, a meteorologist with the Weather Service in Sioux Falls, said the storm hit a large portion of southeastern South Dakota and floated into border states Iowa and Nebraska, producing wind, rain and hail.
Some power outages and crop damage were reported.
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Earlier this week, South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard declared a state of emergency because of severe flooding in southeast South Dakota.
