OTHO - Thunderstorms and large hail caused serious damage to homes and vehicles, downed power lines and stripped trees of their leaves in some parts of Webster County Sunday morning.
According to Ron Vought, a weather spotter and head of the Fort Dodge Amateur Radio Association, the storm did considerable damage to the communities southwest of Fort Dodge, including Otho, Somers, Callendar and Coalville.
"It looks like a war zone over there," he said. "It's one of the worst thunderstorms we've had in Webster County this year."
According to Vought, much of southwest Webster County experienced hail the size of golf balls.
"The sides of some houses look like they've been peppered with a shotgun," he said.
Hail was first reported in Calhoun County in the vicinity of Somers around 9:10 a.m., according to Jim Lee, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Des Moines office. .
The storm path was extensive, stretching through Calhoun, Webster, Hamilton, Hardin, Grundy and Blackhawk counties.
Lee said wind speeds of around 68 miles per hour were reported in Jewell, and hail as large as three inches was reported in Eldora.
Shirley Rosbke, of Otho, said she considers herself lucky that her house received no more damage then it did.
Hail had torn off some of the house's siding, broke the trim on the garage door and damaged her and her husband Dale Rosbke's truck.
"The hail itself only lasted ten minutes and it did this much damage," said Carol Rosbke, Shirley Rosbke's daughter. "When I was coming over here to help I saw broken car windows and broken windows in people's houses. There's a trailer on the edge of town that it took all the siding off, so yeah, it's bad."
As she and her family cleaned up the leaf littered yard, Rosbke said, "We'll be at this for at least a week."
Margaret Barnett was also cleaning up the mess the storm had left in her yard Sunday morning. Several trees in her front yard were almost completely stripped of leaves.
She said that though she may have to replace her roof, her house bore through the storm mostly undamaged.
"We just more or less go along and clean it up, then wait for the next one," said Barnett, "There's not much else you can do."
Contact Ian Schmit at (515) 573-2141 or ischmit@messengernews.net
