Faith one of many communities hit by large storm Saturday night

Faith was one of many communities across the state of South Dakota to experience damage from a storm that rolled through Saturday night. Not long before 11:00 pm Saturday night the rain hit Faith along with gail force winds in the range of 80 -100 + miles per hour. As the rain came down while the wind reaked havoc, area residents rode out the storm and waited to assess the damage after.

Damage has been reported across western South Dakota as far as Ft. Pierre/Pierre. The Faith area received their fair share as area residents reported everything from trees down, decks ripped from homes, damage to yards, fences and of course unfortunately buildings both in town and out. Damage to buildings range from a few shingles missing, gutters bent or missing, broken windows, steel roofing peeled back to missing roof tops.

One home in town had several trees laid on the roof in the aftermath of Saturday night. Upon removal of said trees Sunday, everything seemed to be mostly intact. A few shingles and gutters to address. The Evergreen Apartments building on the East side of town did not fair as well. Part of the roof was taken by the wind and several apartments were affected. Roofing, insulation and drywall were strewn indoors and out. Jerrica King had a good portion of the roof relocated from her home in the South East area of town. Kilby’s also received extensive damage at the home on the south side of town. Many reports came in from area ranches of the same type of damage. Businesses in Faith had equipment tipped or overturned and relocated. Lynn’s Dakotamart worked 24/7 to keep stock needing refridger- ation/frozen taken care of while the power was out. M&D Food Shop was able to hook up a generator so Emergency crews, work crews, volunteers and general public were able to get gas for equipment and generators.

 While the storm was intense and the aftermath looked absolutely overwhelming, people began banding together and cleaning up right away Sunday morning. Everything from chainsaws, trailers, loaders and dump trucks helped make cleanup move along at a steady pace.  Emergency services, Fire, Law Enforcement and the City Crew were out in full force following the storm Saturday night and continued working around the clock to help those in need. Free meals were made available and delivered along with a supply of refreshing cold water Sunday to crews, volunteers and those in need of a meal while the power was out. Power crews began the long task of restoring power to the City of Faith and surrounding areas. By Monday night everyone was restored in Faith. There were some short outages through out town over the next few days to make full repairs from the storm.

Thankfully we all live and work in an area of kind, helpful and hardworking people who will come together when needed to make sure our corner of the world is safe and cared for.