Explore Okoboji
Listen Now! music notes icon
Listen! music notes icon 77° sun icon
  • Home
  • News
  • Storm Damage Assessments Underway In Storm Lake

Storm Damage Assessments Underway In Storm Lake

April 18, 2025 Steve Schwaller

(Undated)– Damage assessments continue in and around Storm Lake, hit hard overnight by severe storms.

Officials say the storms came through that area around 1:00 am this (Fri.) morning. Power was knocked out to the entire entire city of Storm Lake and the surrounding area and isn’t expected to be restored until perhaps 8:00 pm this (Fri.) evening. Structural damage was also reported, with some businesses losing at least portions of their roofs.

Andrew Samet, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, says they’re trying to determine whether the damage was the result of a tornado or straight line wind…

“We’re still looking at some of the damage reports that are coming in. We have pictures that we’re looking at as well but in terms of classification not at this time. We’ll probably be reaching out to some folks over there today to try to find out more information about the damage, see whether or not if everything fell down in sort of like a straight line, that would imply straight line winds but there’s sometimes rotations and a tornado is certainly possible as well but we need to do that damage survey before making any determination.”

Samet says it appears Storm Lake took the brunt of the severe weather locally…

“Wind wise, it looks like Storm Lake was the only major issue. Elsewhere there was a lot of large hail. Hinton happened to see very large hail and Le Mars did as well. Most of the wind damage was confined to the Storm Lake area. We saw some tree branches go through walls there and some power lines snapped and it looks like some structural damage was well.”

Further south, confirmed tornados touched down in the Omaha area and in west central Iowa, where significant damage was also being reported.

***UPDATE*** Officials now say it appears the damage in Storm Lake was the result of very strong straight line wind.

(Courtesy Community First Broadcasting station KAYL in Storm Lake)

Back to News