8/11/2009

By ERIN MATHEWS

Salina Journal

Laurie Hardesty was standing on her front porch with her pigtails blowing straight out from her head watching the street lights come on at 11:30 Monday morning.

"It was so weird and dark and creepy," she said. "I was thinking, 'Wait a minute. It's 11:30 a.m. -- or is it?' "

The powerful storm that ended up plunging her house at 801 S. Fifth and many others in town into darkness started out by making it so dark outside that the street light sensors were triggered.

When the storm cleared, it left a pile of branches as high as a pickup truck parked nearby, blocking off her street. She said a neighbor came with a chain saw, and she joined several people living in the area who worked together to get the street cleared and the piles of branches hauled off.

Across the street from Hardesty, Rozella Van Reenan swept twigs off her sidewalk. Her lawn was piled with limbs from her maple tree.

"We've been bragging about how lucky Salina has been this year, with no winds or big hailstorms," she said. "Now it caught up with us."

According to Mike Fraser, Salina's director of public works, the storm packed quite a wallop. He told Salina city commissioners at their meeting Monday that 80 percent of the city sustained some damage.

The storm came through with 52 mph winds, with a gust of 79 mph. Rainfall was measured at 1.48 inches; 1.31 inches fell within an hour.

"So that's a pretty good rain within an hour's time," Fraser said.

The area of the city most heavily damaged was between Iron Street on the north and Schilling Road on the south, he said.

"We have down somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 large trees. Twenty to 25 large limbs blocked traffic. Crews are out there right now trying to deal with those and get those streets open," Fraser said.

Electrical power to four city traffic signals was knocked out; one sustained some damage where the five-piece head of the signal actually came off, he said.

"We've got nine two- to four-man crews out working today. They're going to be working a 12-hour shift and we're going to be working them the rest of the week," Fraser said, "to be able to make sure we're able to clean up the debris that's on the streets right now."

Next week, city crews will do a sweep through the city, picking up limbs and debris that property owners have dragged to the curb, he said. That's probably going to take one to two weeks to finish, he said.

Citizens also may take their limb debris to the Markley Yard Waste Site or the Salina Landfill.

Ken McCullick said his dog, Dixie, decided she needed to go out while the rain was still coming down so hard he couldn't see across 13th Street, where he lives.

"I opened the door, and it hailed in my house," he said. "Hail blew into my living room."

McCullick said his street was flooded in less than two minutes.

"It was coming down in sheets," he said. "It wasn't rain. It was just water falling -- like Niagara Falls almost."

Lucky homeowners were able to clear tree limbs from their yards or streets. Others found branches on cars, roofs or power lines.

Terry Smith and his brother Mark, who was visiting from Atlanta, Ga., were clearing limbs from in front of Terry's house at 600 W. Republic.

Smith said the street in front of his house flooded with water about two feet deep, and waves of water washed into his garage when cars attempted to drive through. Two cars stalled in the deep water, he said.

Smith said water was standing in his lawn even with his front porch steps but never got into the house. About half an hour later, the water had receded and the sky had cleared.

"Now that nature has begun the job for us, we may as well keep trimming," Mark Smith said.

Ginny Grigsby, owner of Petit Salon, 350 Sunset, was in the middle of giving a customer a permanent in her downstairs salon when the electricity went off.

The woman's husband came in and held two flashlights while Grigsby finished the woman's hair.

"We're going to be talking about it all week," she said. "It was very funny."

n Reporter David Clouston contributed to this story.

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