Severe storm floods streets, dumps hail on city

At the height of Tuesday night's thunderstorm, Sidney Public Service Director John Hehnke spotted very little in the way of damage. In fact, he spotted very little at all.

"It was a wall of hail and water," he reported. "You couldn't see out of the windshield, even with the wipers at full blast."

The storm front dumped almost an inch of precipitation on Sidney in just a few hours. The National Weather Service identified possible rotation in the clouds 10 miles south of town, spurring tornado sirens. Hail and debris meanwhile clogged stormwater inlets, flooding streets until city crews could clear them with shovels and pitchforks.

Almost four feet of water filled the 13th St. underpass. The city temporarily closed 7th and 10th Avenues, as well.

"What's crazy is looking across Legion Park toward the baseball field and not being able to see the press box," said Dave Collins, KSID news director, who broadcast live during the deluge. At times he was certain the pounding of hail on the facility's roof was competing with his voice over the air.

Pea size to dime size hail blanketed the park and city neighborhoods.

City Manager Gary Person was inside, participating in a council meeting when radar indicated a possible tornado. Hehnke spoke with a storm tracker who witnessed a funnel form briefly near the Colorado border.

Depending upon the size and speed of a formation, the city will sound tornado sirens when rotation is cited within a 10 to 20 mile radius. Just before hail began to fall, they issued the warning.

"The circumstances were there," Person reported. "We have to err on the side of caution."

When the storm relented, Hehnke and the street crews faced another difficulty: curious residents driving around to check out any possible damage.

"As soon as the storm gave up, traffick started in earnest," he observed. "We had pretty good street flooding."

City crews cleared things up within an hour, allowing traffic to flow freely.

At KSID, the passing storm meant a return to regularly scheduled programming.

"As serious as it was, it wasn't to the point where we thought we should hunker down," said Collins, who remained on the air during the tornado warning. "It's just another night in live radio."

The city expects to have all large debris removed from streets by the end of Wednesday, barring another such storm.