8 Dead as Torrential Rains, Hail Pummel Cheyenne, Wyo. : Dam Collapse Feared as More Storms Are Due

A thunderstorm that pummeled Cheyenne sent cars and rucks floating down streets filled with six feet of water, blocked streets with drifts of hail and left at least eight people dead and 12 missing, authorities said today.

Officials said it was one of the worst thunderstorms ever to hit Wyoming’s capital.

“It’s the 1-in-100-year storm,” said Jack Daseler of the National Weather Service.

Members of the Laramie County search and rescue unit said they had found the bodies of eight people by mid-morning, including those of a sheriff’s deputy and a little girl he had tried to rescue.

The slow-moving storm spawned three tornadoes, dumped more than six inches of rain in 3 3/4 hours Thursday night and buried parts of the city under six inches of hail that left the ground looking as if a winter storm had passed by.

Cars Buried in Hail

In one part of town, hail that was pushed by water streaming down the street was piled in eight-foot drifts, burying cars. A snow plow was called out to clear it.

Scores of people were forced to flee to emergency shelters. The Police Department was forced out of its command post, and the 911 emergency number was temporarily short-circuited.

Water behind an earthen dam five miles west of the southeastern Wyoming city was receding, but officials who had feared the dam might collapse faced a National Weather Service forecast of more thunderstorms late today.

If the dam bursts, it could send water pouring down Crow Creek through Warren Air Force Base and into Cheyenne’s south side, the weather service said. However, it would take water more than an hour to reach the city.

Among those killed was Laramie County Sheriff’s Deputy Robert Van Allen. A sheriff’s spokesman said Van Allen was swept away while trying to save a child.

Van Allen had tied himself to a telephone pole in an effort to pull three people out of a partially submerged car, he said.

Both Swept Away

“He got two people out and went back for a little girl,” the spokesman, Walt Vanetta, said. “He and the little girl were both washed away.”

The storm hit shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday and had dumped 6.06 inches of rain--nearly half the city’s annual total--on Cheyenne by 9:45 p.m.

At the height of the storm, visibility dropped to near zero as rain and marble-sized hailstones were blown horizontally through Cheyenne, snapping tree limbs and shattering windows.

Police ordered all residents off the streets at 8 p.m. and kept the order in effect through the night. Many residents who were out when the storm hit were stranded in various areas of the city.

About 50 people gathered late Thursday at the Mayflower Bar in downtown Cheyenne for a “flood party,” said assistant manager Bret Nelson. “People are starting to wade in. Everyone is in real good spirits.”

One end of the bar was flooded “shin deep,” but people sat on bar stools and eagerly accepted free drinks, Nelson said.