By MICHAEL STRAND

Salina Journal

"It could have been a lot worse," was Bob Ash's appraisal of tree damage around Salina from the high winds that were part of Thursday afternoon's storm.

The storm, which had enough potential to be dangerous that the National Weather Service warned about it a day in advance, ended up dropping about an inch of rain on Salina, along with high winds and scattered hail.

The wind brought down a "handful" of tree limbs around town, but no really large ones, and certainly nothing compared to the December ice storms that nearly paralyzed the city for several days.

And for that, Ash said, some credit may go to that ice storm.

"After the ice storm, a lot of the weaker branches were probably already down," he said.

The wind did bring down at least one large tree, at 1404 Kingston, about 3:45 p.m., said David Padilla, who rents the home.

He had just left to go to the store for groceries when the tree toppled.

"We was driving down the street and heard it and backed up," he said Friday afternoon. "We had to wait for the rain to quit to see anything, because it was raining so hard."

What they found was that the tree had tipped from the ground, with some of its roots coming up as well; branches put three holes in the roof, and owner Prime Property was temporarily patching the roof.

"It could have gone right through the house if the wind was stronger," Padilla said. "Nature can do some wonders."

Down goes the wheat

Other, smaller plants also were knocked over by the wind, said Tom Maxwell, District 3 agricultural Extension agent.

Maxwell said he talked to one farmer near Brookville who had some wheat knocked over by straight-line winds Thursday afternoon.

He wasn't sure if the stalks were broken, and if not, it's possible the wheat will straighten back up.

"I don't know of any extensive damage," Maxwell said. "But that's not to say it's not out there."

The Saline County Sheriff's Office said it had received no reports of storm damage in the county.

A temporary power outage on the city's southeast side cut power to traffic signals at Ohio and Cloud and Ohio and Republic, said city street superintendent Duane Zook.

The outage also would have affected the signals at Ohio and Crawford, but those signals are now on a battery backup, Zook said. Eight signals in town are equipped with battery backups.

"They're pretty pricey -- we're working on some of the main intersections now, to get them installed," Zook said.

The outage, which lasted about 20 minutes, also cut power to sewer lift stations near Austin Circle, which could have caused problems had the storm been more intense.

"Thank goodness it wasn't a real heavy rain," Zook said.

n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.