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An orange is dwarfed by the size of this hailstone that hammered the Jerry and Leanne Wells home east of Nisland on Highway 212.
High winds, massive hail and rain pulverized area in and around Nisland Friday night.

It began with tornado and thunderstorm warnings in Belle Fourche and as it moved east in Butte County, the storm intensified.

The people of the Nisland, Newell and Vale areas saw the evidence of that as many of them hunkered down waiting out the rain, hail and high winds that ripped through the area late in the afternoon and evening hours.

"Glass and debris is everywhere," LeAnne Clark, Nisland Town Finance Officer, said.

Every window on the north and west sides of the parsonage were lost in the home where she and her husband Pastor Doug Clark of the Nisland Independent Community Church live.

The hardy board siding was smashed with fist-sized holes which dug through into the foam board insulation underneath. The metal roof was pounded to the point where it now looks like ripples.

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The historic buildings, including the round pavilion, at the Butte County Fairgrounds at Nisland, were pounded by hail and strong winds.
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Kurt and Sherry Hocking, who live northwest of Newell, had a large amount of damage to their new home which they had just moved into this past year.
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This Park Avenue was damaged and looks like most of the vehicles in the Nisland, Newell and Vale areas. The vehicle belongs to the Champion family of Nisland.
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A wall from a shed at the Melvin Pittman home southeast of Nisland flew off and wrapped around his big John Deere tractor. According to his daughter Pandi, the tractor survived unharmed except for scratches.
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Shattered windows, like these in the home of Doug Clark of Nisland, were the norm in the Nisland, Newell and Vale areas as a severe weather storm came through the area Friday night.
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Taking up space in most freezers are the gigantic hailstones that fell in the Newell, Vale, Nisland area on Friday night.
Thousands of dollars of damage was done in the NVN area with photo evidence of orange and grapefruit size hail which tore through metal barn roofs and poked holes in shingle roofs all the way through the plywood underneath.

One weather station in the area just south of Nisland clocked winds at up to 93 mph. Reports also came in of hail to 4.5 inches in diameter.


Melvin Pittman, who lives southeast of Nisland, had one end of a shed come flying off and ended up wrapped around his big green tractor. A pivot sprinkler was twisted like spaghetti east of Nisland about two miles.

In the aftermath immediately following the storm, people were tacking up plywood over broken windows and doors. On Saturday the cleanup began in earnest with family and friends coming into the area to help mop up, sweep up and haul away the worst of the damage. Every vehicle that was sitting outside was damaged.

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This newer model Suburban, which Doug Clark of Nisland was trying to sell for his sister, was totaled by large hail stones. The back window was totally knocked out and damage to all the windows facing the onslaught of hail were broken.
"They're toast," said Clark, describing the vehicles outside their home. Her husband does mechanic work for people in his spare time and several vehicles outside their home were badly damaged with large dents and broken glass. Her sister-in-law's Suburban, which Clark was trying to sell, was totaled with entire windows broken out.

"We had 19 holes in our roof, with big patches of shingles off, and many holes in our steel garages, some the size of an ice cream bucket," said Leanne Wells who lives east of Nisland with her husband Jerry.

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Just one of 19 fist-sized holes that were punched through the roof of the Wells home at Nisland.
Diamond Roofers was already traveling the area of Newell and it is certain that there will be plenty of work for roofers and construction workers as soon as insurance estimates are in and adjustors have surveyed the damage.

Gary Brunner, Butte County Sheriff's Deputy and his wife Aileen, said the storm started around 8:10 p.m. and hail pulverized the area for around 20 minutes with high winds.

Although the storm began near Belle Fourche, there were few reports of damage in Belle Fourche Friday.

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The size of hailstones were pretty much average across the entire area of Nisland, Newell and Vale. Here is a stone that fell at the Joe Crockford home north of Vale.
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This pivot, near the home of Jim Mickelson of Nisland, was twisted like spaghetti in the severe storm Friday night.
Source: Butte County Post