News from neighbors
Storm rocks Akron with 100+ mph winds
AKRON NEWS-REPORTER, June 17 — Akron residents were awakened by 100+ mph winds around midnight Tuesday morning, leading to significant damage across town and the country around it.
Nearly an hour after the winds had slowed, the National Weather Service confirmed that there was no tornado but a macroburst with a gust of 102 mph. A macroburst is an outward burst of strong winds (straight line winds) at or near the surface with horizontal dimensions larger than 2.5 miles. It occurs when a strong downdraft reaches the surface. Around 60-80 mph thunderstorm winds with localized gusts of 100+ were reported Tuesday morning.
To visualize a macroburst, it is said to imagine the way water comes out of a faucet and hits the bottom of the sink. The column of water is the downdraft, and the outward spray at the bottom of the sink is the macroburst.
The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.
Damage assessed following June 8 derecho; several local municipalities respond to restore power to Haxtun community
HAXTUN-FLEMING HERALD, June 17 — Waking up on Tuesday morning was like a dream, a really bad dream. Storms that struck the Haxtun area on Monday night, June 8, and into the early morning hours of Tuesday, June 9, tore through the community, ripping up entire trees, knocking out power and causing damage some say can only come from tornados, although there was no official sighting of one.
Some reports from the weather service have indicated the damage was from a derecho, a straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms. Derechos can cause hurricane-force winds.
According to Haxtun Town Superintendent Ron Carpenter, debris from wind associated with the storm took out numerous electrical lines causing a power outage just after 1 a.m. Tuesday, June 9.
Town crews went to work to repair the electrical system right away. Carpenter said other municipalities came to assist including crews from Fort Morgan, Yuma, Holyoke, Imperial, Nebraska, Morrill, Nebraska, and Sidney, Nebraska. Fetzer Electric, from Haxtun, also helped Town crews.
Many, many residents in town as well as in the country woke to damage as the sun came up Tuesday morning, shedding light on what had happened in the night. Trees were completely uprooted, some landing on houses and causing extreme damage to homes and other buildings.
The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.
Second peaceful protest held
STERLING JOURNAL-ADVOCATE, June 16 — A local group of Black Lives Matter protesters held another peaceful gathering at Centennial Square on Sunday to speak out against police brutality.
The local protests were organized by Courtney Jones, who was born and raised in Sterling before moving to Fort Collins six months ago. Jones says that her hope is to continue organizing protests on Sundays until change is seen at the local level.
One notable difference between the second Centennial Square protest and the first was the presence of counter protesters. Earlier in the day a group of people wearing shirts that read “All Lives Matter” were also present at Centennial Square, albeit separate from the Black Lives Matter group. Neither group engaged in violence; however, Jones said that since the previous week’s protest she has received death threats.
“(The counter protesters presence) was comical really,” she said. “Especially considering that this whole week building up after the first protest I’ve received a lot of threats. People (told me) they wanted to run me over, light me on fire, shoot me up, there’s a long list. Seeing a lot of (counter protesters) out here personally makes me feel intimidated.”
The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.
NextEra’s Niyol wind farm gets green light
STERLING JOURNAL-ADVOCATE, June 17 — After several months of meetings and hearings, the Logan County commissioners have given the Niyol wind farm near Fleming the green light.
Meeting in their regularly scheduled business meeting Tuesday morning, the commissioners granted a conditional use permit to Niyol Wind, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc., to build 89 wind turbines south and west of Fleming.
The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.
Fire department moves to new site on south Broadway
IMPERIAL REPUBLICAN, June 18 — The Imperial, Nebraska, Volunteer Fire Department moved trucks and equipment into its new home at 315 Broadway Monday night.
At their Oct. 7 meeting last year, the Imperial city council approved the purchase of the Harchelroad Motors Inc. building at the south end of Broadway for $650,000. The purchase included the two small buildings to the west of the larger one.
The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.