Adair hit hard by wind, hail and rain

June 30th, 2014 by Ric Hanson

Adair-Guthrie County Emergency Management Director Bob Kempf is asking people to stay away from the City of Adair due to the damage that resulted from hail ranging in size from ping pong balls to eggs, and heavy rain that hammered the area late Monday morning.

Flooding southwest of Adair near the Jesse James marker.

Exchange State Bank sign riddled by hail

Tree down across a yard and street in Adair

Flooding southwest of Adair along White Pole Rd at Afton Road.

Leaves littered nearly every single street, stripped from the trees.

Kempf says there is lots of hail and wind damage to residents, businesses and vehicles, power lines and trees are down, and debris litters the streets. Unless you know someone in Adair, avoid coming to town. If you live in Adair and you need help cleaning up, call City Hall at 641-742-3751. Likewise, if you want to help with the clean-up process, call the Adair City Hall to sign-up. Work will begin Tuesday on the massive undertaking.

Kemp says there were no injuries reported. Evidence of the storm was visible west of town, along interstate 80, where a semi was blown into the median near the 71-mile marker westbound. There was also extensive crop damage from the hail, heavy rain and wind. Crops west of Adair were shredded and water gushed down through fields and out of normally dry creeks. Just south of the Jesse James train robbery marker along White Pole Road, washed roared across Afton Road just east of White-Pole near the railroad tracks. Construction signs and cones were tossed about on Interstate 80, making for some tricky driving until road crews could put them back in place.

In Adair, massive trees blocked roads, leaves were shredded and littered nearly every single street. Even the Fire Station got hit. Adair Fire and Rescue Fire Chief Jordan Smith told KJAN News there was significant damage, including shattered windows, paint stripped from siding and numerous power poles toppled. He said shortly after the storm went through there was a 9-1-1 call about a person trapped in their vehicle after a tree limb fell on top of it. Powerlines were entangled in the mess, and crews had to wait nearly 90-minutes for power crews from Alliant to arrive before the victim could be extricated. Fortunately, the person in the vehicle was not injured.

Smith’s 2007 pickup, which never had a scratch on it before the storm, was pock-marked from hail damage, and some security lights outside the fire station lay shattered on the ground.