-Farm News photo by Karen Schwaller
Four of five grain bins at the Lake Park branch of Farmers Cooperative Elevator (above and left) were severely damaged or destroyed during a straight-line wind storm during the overnight hours of June 30. Company officials are in the process of removing them and deciding how to replace them.

LAKE PARK — Isolated straight line winds tore through parts of Dickinson and Osceola counties during the early morning hours of June 30, leveling farm buildings, damaging homes, uprooting trees and knocking out power.

No injuries were reported, and there was no confirmation of a tornado.

The storm came through Osceola County first. Osceola County Emergency Management Coordinator Corey Shearer said the most official wind speed he could report was 70 to 80 mph, but he said he saw a social media post that indicated a wind gust of 100 mph near Melvin. He could not officially confirm that wind speed.

Damage near Melvin consisted of large tree limbs down, along with a roof blown off of a west-facing hog barn west of Melvin.

Shearer said he also had no confirmation of wind speeds near Harris, but starting southwest of Harris, he said he knows of three full machine sheds in Osceola County that were leveled, and several barn roofs blown off or missing portions of the roof. He added that damage was intermittent.

-Farm News photo by Karen Schwaller
Four of five grain bins at the Lake Park branch of Farmers Cooperative Elevator (above and left) were severely damaged or destroyed during a straight-line wind storm during the overnight hours of June 30. Company officials are in the process of removing them and deciding how to replace them.

“You might see one machine shed leveled, then the next building in the same yard was untouched,” said Shearer.

He said about half of the county’s corn fields were leaning somewhat following the storm, but his hope is that they can come out of it at this stage in the growing season.

Leah Ten Napel, Iowa State University Extension agronomist, said corn that is leaning from the storm should have a good chance of standing back up while it’s still in the specific reproductive stages it’s in now.

“We’re close to tassel time and reproduction time, and when we hit that it’s less likely that it would stand back up,” she said. “Right now there’s still a chance.”

She said hybrids all handle that kind of stress differently, but she said the corn should pollinate effectively because it should all be standing up fairly well by then.

Shearer added they were fortunate in Osceola County that a straight line wind situation in the middle of the night didn’t result in any serious injuries.

“Just be weather aware,” he said. “These storms can come up out of nowhere.”

Dickinson County

The straight line winds blew into Dickinson County around 2:30 a.m.

Dickinson County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Ehret said the winds ramped up south of Harris and east of Ocheyedan and moved east/northeast, taking with it an entire seed business shed (Cornerstone Seed and Service) located along Iowa Highway 9.

The storm then moved east/northeast into Lake Park with approximate 70 to 75 mph winds, resulting in broken limbs, trees snapping off, uprooting trees, damage to home roofs due to trees snapping off, and damaging grain bins at Cooperative Farmer’s Elevator (CFE) in Lake Park.

“Two of their bins were pushed off of their foundations and the one was pushed into another bin,” said Ehret.

Rob Jacobs, CEO of CFE, said four of five grain bins at the Lake Park location were damaged or lost altogether.

“Two have come down, two were severely damaged and one had the roof damaged and we’ll have to evaluate that one more when we get all the other ones out of there, “ said Jacobs.

He said the company is not sure what they will do next to replace them, but that something will replace them at some point. He said they will be working with their insurance company to determine the next steps, and that “it would be a stretch” to think they could be replaced and up and running in time for the 2026 harvest.

CFE is currently in the process of constructing a 2 million-bushel soybean facility, which Jacobs said should still be ready for this fall.

Jacobs said CFE employees and the Lake Park community are to be commended for their hard work in helping them out in time of need.

Ehret knows of a grain bin lost on a farm east of Lake Park, and said there may be more than that.

“You know how farmers are — they just clean up and move on,” he said.

Ehret said a tree landed on a pickup truck parked directly in front of a pop-up camper in the campground on the south side of Silver Lake.

“(A young guy) in his 20s was in that pop-up camper, and at least one branch caught one of the ends of the camper. He was OK, but his truck was totaled,” said Ehret.

He added that a 74 mph wind classifies as a hurricane-force wind, and that the day before (June 29), Highmore, S.D. experienced official winds of 130 mph — the strongest straight-line winds ever recorded in that state.

Ehret said the Dickinson County trail system was clogged here and there with fallen trees or branches, and were closed until they could get all the debris removed.

He said luck came in the form of no injuries.

“Everybody was home at 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning,” he said. “Nobody was outside and nobody was out on the lake, so it could have been worse.”