Photo by Deb Gau The roof of the Minneota Auto Center was blown into the parking lot by extreme winds that tore through southwest Minnesota on Thursday evening.

When high winds ripped across southwest Minnesota on Thursday evening, they took down power lines and trees, knocked over moving semi trucks and damaged buildings and other structures.

Area residents said the storm came on fast.

“It just kind of came out of nowhere,” said David Moriarty, one of the Minneota area residents helping pick up fallen branches outside Hope Lutheran Church on Friday morning.

“The sirens went off, and we went into our utility room,” said Linda Nuytten. “You could hear the wind blowing really loud outside.”

Powerful straight line winds were reported around the region as the storms moved through. According to the National Weather Service, gusts of 81 mph were reported in Taunton, and gusts of 78 mph were reported just west of Marshall.

Residents in communities like Minneota, Ghent and Lynd were out working together on Friday morning helping to clear away debris.

“At least we got a nice day for it,” Nuytten said of the cleanup efforts.

Minneota had some significant damage to residences, as well as roof damage to some local businesses, said Minneota Police Chief Bill Bolt. There was one person reported injured after they were knocked down by the wind.

In Lynd, power outages lasted until Friday afternoon, said Mayor Justin Guggisberg.

“We did have a number of smaller trees down,” he said, but there were no injuries reported. The storm also damaged the site of the Kiel and Morgan Hotel, the historic building that served as Lyon County’s first courthouse.

“There was a large limb that took off the upper balcony,” Guggisberg said. There was some roofline damage to the building as well. However, he thought the damage could be repaired.

Guggisberg said he also wanted to thank workers at Fastenal for offers of help during cleanup on Friday.

Thursday’s storm proved dangerous for motorists in the region. Crashes involving semi trucks being blown off the road were reported in the Minneota area. One semi truck driver on Minnesota Highway 68 near Minneota was injured in a rollover crash, the Minnesota State Patrol said.

2006 Peterbuilt semi driven by Daniel Ray Clinton, 59, of Superior, Iowa, was westbound on Highway 68 when the semi was blown into the north ditch, the State Patrol said. The crash happened about three miles east of Minneota.

linton received non life-threatening injuries, and was taken to Avera Marshall Medical Center, the State Patrol said.

Another semi rollover crash was reported near the intersection of 210th Avenue and Lyon County Road 8. The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office said there were no injuries in that crash.

Marshall had relatively less damage from Thursday’s storm, although there were some downed limbs or trees visible in some areas on Friday morning. A large chunk of one tree at Liberty Park near Park Avenue was split off after the storm. Perhaps the most unusual storm damage was to a traffic signal at the intersection of College Drive and Bruce Street — the arm holding the traffic signal up was still standing, but the stoplight had been bent by the wind. Signals at the intersection were set to flashing red lights through the day.

Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes said the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University, which isn’t served by Marshall Municipal Utilities, lost power on Thursday night. However, there weren’t outages reported in the rest of the city.

“We are assisting other communities that have been hit more dramatically than what Marshall is,” Byrnes said. “We have stormwater pumps that are being used in Madison, in Minneota. Our wastewater laboratory is providing testing services for Balaton and Minneota, and our municipal utility crews are assisting Granite Falls.”

One question that emergency responders are still working to answer is why Marshall’s severe weather sirens didn’t sound on Thursday night. The city’s social media posted that sirens would go off to warn of expected 80-mph winds, but it didn’t happen.

Marshall Public Safety Director Jim Marshall said the city was investigating why the sirens didn’t sound. He said it was possible that the system may have been overwhelmed due to the large volume of emergency communications across Lyon County on Thursday night.

“We’re trying to discern the best way to move forward,” Marshall said. However, he said he was confident the sirens will work in the future.

Power outages were a major problem for area residents after the storm. Bolt said not having electricity was a big concern for Minneota residents, because they needed working sump pumps to deal with flooded basements from storms earlier this week.

Schools in communities including Ivanhoe, Minneota and Lynd canceled classes on Friday partly due to the lack of electricity. Minneota Superintendent Dan Deitte said Minneota Public School also had some roof damage that needed to be assessed.

“This damage will not keep us from being able to have school next week,” Deitte said.

Crews from Otter Tail Power and Lyon-Lincoln Electric Cooperative were working to restore power in the area, starting as soon as the storm passed Thursday and continuing Friday.

“It looks like the damage is widespread across our service territory in Lincoln, Yellow Medicine and Lyon Counties,” said Tim O’Leary of LLEC. On Thursday night, eight out of the nine substations that served the area were without power, he said. Transmission poles near Lake Benton, Ivanhoe, Ghent and Marshall were all damaged by the storm.

On Friday morning, crews from LLEC were working to replace transmission poles west of Tyler, O’Leary said. From there, they would head toward Ghent to replace downed poles east of town. O’Leary cautioned area residents to stay away from downed power lines, and to contact LLEC to report damaged lines.

Some area residents were finding creative ways to respond to the power outages. A Facebook post by AgPlus Cooperative said Turkey Valley Farms in Marshall reached out to help the co-op’s Minneota location. Turkey Valley delivered a 53-foot trailer with a freezer unit that AgPlus could use to save frozen food items during the power outage, AgPlus said.

The weather forecast is looking a lot milder this weekend, with sunny conditions and high temperatures in the 70s, according to the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls. There is a 20% chance of showers on Sunday.

The NWS said a flood warning is in effect for the Redwood River in the Russell area. The river was observed above its 14-foot flood stage on Friday morning, and there was minor flooding occurring in low-lying areas.