100 mph winds ravage Grand Forks

Grand Forks, ND (WDAZ-TV)
The southeast side of Grand Forks was buzzing today.
“The block is just a mess,” said resident Bernadette Whetham
People cleaned up after strong winds whipped through overnight leaving a path of destruction ripping the roof off a house.
“The water just started pouring down; it was coming down pretty good,” said the homeowner Jamie Fultz.
Blowing the windows out of the deck of a home.
“It sounded exactly like a freight train, and I screamed to my wife and said let's roll because it sounded like explosions,” described David Faber.
A 10,000 camper, which Shane Dahlstrom purchased 5 days ago, was tossed around like a toy.
“It was completely air born, then flipped on its side, then landed back on its wheels,” said Dahlstrom.
23rd Avenue South was by far the hardest hit. The roof was ripped off an apartment complex, car window smashed by flying debris and an air conditioner was blown off the roof of Forks Finest Auto Body.
“I've never seen anything like this,” said Whetham.
While most of the damage was contained between 17th Avenue South and 28th Avenue South from South Washington to the Red River, other spotty damage was reported like these toppled rail cars near the American Crystal plant. 
“This is some of the worst damage I've seen, this rivals 2001 when we had 115 mile per hour winds,” said Mike Fugazzi with the Grand Forks Forestry Department.

City leaders say cleaning up the destruction is not going to be an easy task; it's a process that is expected to last several weeks.
It's an effort the city is going to try and accomplish on its own, because there are only so many contractors to go around.
“It's kind of a catch 22 when you bring in other crews, when you bring in private contractors then people who need them on their own private property are short of help,” explained Fugazzi.
While the damage is extensive everyone is quick to point out homes and cars can be replaced. They are just thankful not a single person was hurt as the storms rolled through in the middle of the night.

“Now it's just time to rebuild, get things cleaned up and moved on,” said Dahlstrom.
About 5,000 Xcel customers lost power during the storm. Almost everyone had it back on by late morning.    

The National Weather Service is estimating wind speeds got up to 110 miles per hour causing all of that damage.
The storm was not a tornado, but a microburst, air cooled by rain, that descends and accelerates.
Meteorologists say the bursts are difficult to predict, they're common in strong thunderstorms, but, in our area, we typically don't notice them.
It’s a localized phenomenon. It doesn’t happen all the time, but we do get this on occasion through the summer time a lot of them go unnoticed in a field. Some trees in the middle of nowhere, but in this particular instance, a highly populated area,” explained meteorologist Ryan Knutsvig.

Grand Forks city leaders ask you to take storm debris to the public works facility and use the containers on the south side of the building. If the containers are full, leave debris on the concrete.
Contractors are asked to haul debris directly to the city landfill.
If you need help hauling debris, place items on the berm by the street and not in the alley. Then call public works to schedule a pickup.
Bron:http://www.wdaz.com/news/north-dakota/4039148-100-mph-winds-ravage-grand-forks

Trees, power lines down as severe thunderstorm rolls through Grand Forks

Bron:http://www.wdaz.com/news/4038643-trees-power-lines-down-severe-thunderstorm-rolls-through-grand-forks


Bron: http://www.wdaz.com/news/north-dakota/4039148-storms-cause-extensive-damage-grand-forks | Gewijzigd: 30 januari 2017, 15:14 uur, door Joyce.s