The hail peppered the north side of Teresa Deckert's garage. Her Swiss cheese siding an unappetizing aftermath of the storm.
"I picked up a lot of pieces of siding this morning off the ground and our garage windows were broken so we cleared out our garage," Deckert said.
A forest of downed trees and branches sprouted in yards throughout Parkston. Those who weren't picking up debris were picking up the phone to their adjuster. Wenzel Insurance on Main Street fielded dozens of calls from policy-holders, even as the company dealt with its own storm damage.
Amid the cleanup chaos, Berdene Nuebel calmly does crossword puzzles on the stoop of her leaf-spattered house.
"I woke up from hearing the hail on my air conditioner out here and I just sit there. I didn't know what to do and then the lights went out," Neubel said.
The damage is just as bad outside of town. The strong winds tore off the the tin roof at Hillcrest Pork, air-mailing parts of the roof a quarter-mile away. "I was listening to KELO this morning, watching the news and they were saying how bad it was and the alarms were calling so I knew it was not good so I thought I better get out here and see how bad the damage is and starting fixing it back up again," owner Verlyn Hoff said.
Hail stripped the corn crop from field after field. A growing season's-worth of hope and promise, shredded to bits.
Crews were able to restore power to Parkston within about fifteen minutes. Any longer than that, and Hoff says the 800 hogs inside Hillcrest Pork would have suffocated from lack of air circulation.
