SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — While a tornado traveled through Gregory County Monday night, firefighters and county emergency management were busy responding to multiple grass fires.
A long, lengthy storm brought lightning, rain, at least one tornado and fire.
“I was watching the clouds when my pager went off about three grass fires north of Iona,” Gregory County emergency manager Brad Christensen said. Christensen responded to the page call and the local Gregory fire department was dispatched.
“I was 12 miles north of town when I noticed all these fires and I started locating them,” Christensen said.
Meanwhile, the storm had spawned a tornado. “There was a whole bunch of grass fires at the same time from lightning strikes. The tornado was behind it,” Christensen said.
“All the Gregory Fire Department was out. Part of them were north of the tornado and part of them were south of the tornado,” Christensen said. “Most of them got to watch the tornado,” he said.
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Clouds near Bonesteel on July 28. Photo courtesy of Angi Allen. -
Clouds near Bonesteel on July 28. Photo courtesy of Angi Allen. -
Tornado in Gregory County on July 28. Photo courtesy of Andrew Nachtigal -
July 28 tornado in Gregory County. Photo courtesy of Kaylea Hannahs. -
Tornado in Gregory County on July 28. Photo courtesy of Hannah Anderson.
“It was definitely something,” Christensen said of fighting fires while needing to pay attention to a tornado.
When the fires were out and the tornado passed, firefighters drove county roads to check for damage and check on residents.
No injuries were reported as of Tuesday morning, Christensen said. A shed went down near the junction of South Dakota Highways 47 and 44.
A house and several outbuildings outside of Bonesteel were also destroyed.
“We had some power lines down in a couple of different spots,” Christensen said.
Shelly Jons of Bonesteel is thankful no one was injured in Monday’s storm.
“Trees and belongings can be replaced,” Jons said.
Multiple tornadoes? Straight line winds
Bonesteel was smacked with straight line winds as the storm continued across the county, even after the tornado, Christensen said.
“The tornado started about a mile west of the junction between (state highways) 47 and 44,” he said. “It was going north to south, then it went east. We are still trying to figure out if it was tornado that bounced around or more than one.”
The National Weather Service told him that it plans to use satellite images to check the path of the tornado to determine if it was one or more.
Early on, the county was as concerned about the possibility of a tornado or the severity of a possible storm, he said. “Everything was way north of us,” Christensen said. “The clouds kind of took a u-turn.”
Jons said the north side of Bonesteel got the most damage. “Lots of trees are down,” she said.
“A bunch of fences were down in Bonesteel. Most of that was (from) straight line winds,” Christensen said.
Both she and Christensen said the town’s ballfield area got heavy damage.
“We lost power for about 3 to 3 1/2 hours,” Jons said.
It felt like the storm was two storms as what she felt was second storm hit about 45 minutes after the first, Jons said.
It was one big and slow moving storm, Christensen said.
“For the most part it was one storm. It just took that long for it to get from the west side of the county to the east side of the county,” Christensen said.
Jons and Christensen said people were busy cleaning up in Bonesteel on Tuesday.
Christensen said some of the same firefighters who were putting out fires and checking on residents were helping to clean up on Tuesday.
The combination of fire and storm even caught the eye of a popular storm chaser. Christensen said photos of the fires and the tornado were in multiple social media posts from at least one storm chaser.
