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 wind storm that is associated with a fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms. Derechos can cause hurricane-force winds.

While there was no official record of wind speeds by the National Weather Service in the immediate Haxtun area, winds in Akron were officially monitored the same night with a record of 102 mile-per-hour winds occurring with the same storm.

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. on Tuesday, June 9.

The storm damaged eight power poles while also blowing over welcome signs on both ends of Haxtun. Carpenter said there was also damage to the small gazebo and the concession stand as well as several uprooted trees at the park. The Town quonset also suffered damage during the storm.

Town crews went to work to repair the electrical system right away and as of Friday afternoon, had put in more than 44 man hours while both repairing electrical lines and beginning clean up. To help, Carpenter said other municipalities came to assist including crews from Fort Morgan, Yuma, Holyoke, Imperial, Neb., Morrill, Neb., and Sidney, Neb. Fetzer Electric, from Haxtun, also helped Town crews.

Carpenter said the most extreme damage, electrical wise, was on the northeast side of Town.

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 causing extreme damage to homes and other buildings.

The top layer of bricks on the northwest corner of the former Haxtun Inn building at the corner of Colorado Avenue and Strohm Street were laying on the sidewalk and had fallen into the street as fire crews and first responders made their way to the emergency services building during the storm.

Residents pulled together all throughout the day Tuesday, many of them with chainsaws and trailers, cutting up trees and picking up branches and limbs that fell during the storm.

The difference in scene from Tuesday morning to Wednesday morning in Haxtun was remarkable as community members came together to clean up, repair damage and begin the process of picking up the pieces.

While many were on the front lines cleaning up from the storm, others were stationed at the community center, ready to feed those who were working in the still adverse conditions as rain continued to fall throughout the day Tuesday. The wind seemed to never stop.

With power completely out in Haxtun, many restaurants from neighboring communities brought in food to feed volunteers, emergency workers and first responders who had been on the job since the storm hit in the middle of the night.

Clean-up efforts continued into Wednesday and the remainder of the week but the amount of effort put into picking up pieces from the storm within the community is tremendous.

On Saturday morning, Colorado Senator Cory Gardner visited Haxtun and was accompanied by Town of Haxtun employees and council members as well as the Phillips County Commissioners. Gardner received a report on the storm and its damage before taking a tour to see what was left behind.

"I greatly appreciate the local Phillips County and City of Haxtun officials' presentation of the recent wind damage," said Senator Gardner. "We had a productive discussion including the assessment of damage and an update on the recovery efforts, which will allow us to further improve our emergency response to protect local residents and keep people safe."

The Haxtun Town Council met for a special meeting exactly one week after the storm and in doing so, passed a declaration of emergency in regards to the storm. The Phillips County Commissioners have done the same for County residents who suffered damage during the storm.

According to Phillips County Administrator Pam Jensen, the County encourages citizens to report their damages. "Gathering this information is the first step in requesting Federal government assistance," she said.

(Courtesy photo from Dave Ridlen)

A LARGE TREE in front of a home along South Washington Avenue fell during a Monday, June 8 wind storm, landing on the house causing extensive damage to the home. The damage to this house took several days for volunteers and homeowners to repair.

Phillips County residents are encouraged to view the following link to report damages: https://bit.ly/PC_2020June_StormDamages. For more information, contact the Phillips County Administrator's Office at (970) 854-3778.