Storm damages shed, downs power line

By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

While Dave and Effie Smith were sleeping Friday night, a swirling wind or small twister lifted a portion of a roof and some rafters from a pole shed on their homestead at 2331 Pawnee Rd.

“We heard a big boom, but we didn’t know what had happened until morning,” Effie Smith said.

Pieces of metal and wood were scattered throughout the yard and over a half-mile stretch across the road into a farmer’s field.

The wind took down a power line, bent a lightning rod on the barn, and blew debris across the house, bending a vent.

The Smiths called the sheriff, and Flint Hills Rural Electric came out to shut off electricity to the power line. The storm did not affect electricity to the house except for a brief power outage that affected a large part of Marion County.

Ironically, the same shed was damaged in a windstorm in spring and had been repaired.

“It could have been worse,” Smith said.

The storm dumped .9 inch of rain.

The National Weather Service reported Sunday that three tornadoes had touched down in Kansas Friday night, but the Smith incident was not mentioned.

Greg and Rose Davidson reported that two horses were killed by lightning on their farmstead five miles northeast of Marion.