Heavy Rain Hits Plains; Winds Fell Trees

Thunderstorms moved across the plains on Thursday with heavy rain, hail and powerful wind gusts that ripped down trees and power lines, weather officials said.

The thunderstorms were scattered from Texas to the Dakotas and across the lower Mississippi Valley. Thunderstorms brought high winds and heavy rains to the Southeast also.

Winds gusting to 60 m.p.h. uprooted trees and tore down power lines in Fairfax, Okla., and Des Moines, leaving about 400 Des Moines residents without electricity for two hours.

More than half an inch of rain drenched Broomfield, Colo., in a 10-minute period, and about the same amount fell in Austin, Tex., in 20 minutes.

At Lincoln, Neb., lightning ignited an early morning fire at an apartment complex. The blaze caused an estimated $70,000 in damage, but no injuries were reported, authorities said.

Residents of southwest Kansas began cleaning up Thursday from a storm that pounded the region Wednesday night with large hail that broke windows, damaged roofs and flattened wheat and corn crops.

“I’ve lived here 25 years, and this is the worst I’ve seen,” said Carol Matheson, the city clerk in Holcomb, Kan. “There is extensive damage to cars. We have crews working today to clean up.”

Boyd Funk, a farmer with 109 acres of corn north of Holcomb, said Thursday: “It’s completely gone.”

In the South, high winds downed trees in Hoke County, N.C., and lightning caused several fires in Moore County, N.C. Downpours caused minor flooding along Highway 20 near Dundarrach, N.C.

Elsewhere, unseasonably warm temperatures lingered for a sixth straight day from eastern Kansas and Missouri into lower Michigan, with highs ranging from the upper 80s to the mid-90s. The heat, which has threatened crops and killed some livestock in the central part of the country, has set about 80 record high temperatures since Saturday.

“The lower peninsula is in dire need of rain,” said J. D. Carlson of Michigan State University’s Agricultural Weather Service.