Hugh Hail Storm Hits Minnesota...05/18/00
Kelo-Land TV

The first wave rolled through this morning. The hail was two inches deep in Lincoln and Lyon counties in Minnesota.

A semi was blown off the road west of Lake Benton. A driver has minor injuries after his truck was blown off the road east of Brookings. Two boats went flying in Brookings hitting a car and a light pole.

Highway 14 was the path for all these storms, so that's where we sent Kelo-land's John Bachman.

Seventy mile an hour wind, torrential rain, and hail swept into Brookings so fast this morning, there wasn't time to hunker down.

Round one's pounding started at 10:30 this morning. Wind raced through Brookings, ripping the rafters off the Super 8 Motel.

"We turned around and looked out the back window and what we thought was snow was really our insulation blowing all over the parking lot," says the Super 8 manager, Patty Chester.

Gusts gave this 200 foot shed the heave-ho. Snapping posts, slamming chunks into a nearby building, scattering pieces 100 yards into a field.

The winds were so strong they sucked the post right out from the concrete, which was quite a feat.

What took mother nature seconds, will take a lot longer for these workers. For safety, they're finishing what the wind started, and knocking the remaining wall down.

Mark Steen works at Einspahr Motors, "It just took the wiper straight up. Oh yeah right up in here the top of this car."

It wasn't hail, it was a runaway trampoline that jumped a building, bouncing next door into three cars.

A brand new truck didn't even make it off the transport before losing the back window to hail.

But in all the dents and splinters, only cars and buildings got banged up, no one is hurt.

The hail was so deep east of Brookings they had to push it off with a blade.

Several farm buildings are destroyed around White and Elkton.