Another storm hits Brookings area

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BROOKINGS – The Brookings area was hit by another storm Tuesday, almost one week after another one roared through. No serious damage has been reported, even after one home was hit by lightning.

Two tornado warnings were issued, but no twisters spotted, even though clouds were seen rotating high above.

“The weather system that came through had plenty of rotation in it. We set the sirens off in White, Volga, Brookings and Aurora based on Tornado Warnings that the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls issued,” wrote Bob Hill, Emergency Management director, in an e-mail to the Register.

“I drove up to White last night and we definitely had a lot of rain. Brookings County deputies were checking on the local communities at the same time. I have not received any damage as of yet,” Hill said.

The Brookings Fire Department was called out at 4:48 p.m. Tuesday after lightning hit a house at 903 West Highway 14 bypass, reported Pete Bolzer, deputy fire chief.

The lightning blew out the wall in a couple of areas, he said.

“There was smoke, but it was noticed soon enough that it didn’t go into active flaming,” Bolzer said. “We just took apart a wall in a couple areas to make sure that there was not fire in the wall.”

A quick call saved the incident from escalating into a big fire, he said.

“It could have been something smoldering in the wall that could have broke out later in the night. It was actually a good thing that he did call,” Bolzer said.

The BFD cleared the scene at 5:25 p.m.

Rainfall totals

Rainfall totals from Tuesday’s storms varied widely in Brookings County. According to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network, numbers in the county ranged from 0.86 inches 1 mile south of Brookings to 4.7 inches about 2 miles south-southeast of Astoria.

Area CoCoRaHS reports for the past 24 hours included:

• Astoria 2.2 miles SSE: 4.70 inches

• Brookings 0.2 miles SSW: 1.15 inches

• Brookings 3.1 miles WSW: 1.15 inches

• White 1.7 miles SSW: 2.78 inches

• Bruce 0.2 miles SSW: 2.23 inches

• Toronto 3.9 miles SW: 3.05 inches

• Brookings 1.0 miles S: 0.86 inches

• Aurora 0.3 miles NE: 1.15 inches

Photo taken near Camelot Intermediate School courtesy of Christopher Ficek.