Residents react after small town rocked by hail

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Aug. 13—When Doug St. George checked outside his Rockford home on Thursday, the ground made him think it was Christmas.

“There was only one river here,” St. George said, pointing to the street in front of his house which had been covered in oversized hailstones after Thursday night’s storm.

Residents were still assessing the damage the day after the intense hailstorm that hit the town.

Tammie Fenn, who works at Rockford Mini Mart, compared the storm to a hurricane.

“It was just a nightmare,” Fenn said, “The wind was awful and the rain was blowing so hard we locked the door. And it (the rain) was coming faster than I could mop it up.

“We still had customers in the store who didn’t want to come out because it was so dangerous.”

Another Rockford citizen, Karen Trejbal, feared the windows in her home would crumble due to high winds.

Many shingles that once lay on the roof of his house were torn off in large pieces during the storm.

“I thought our house was going to explode,” Trejbal said.

St. George said he couldn’t even see the house in front of him when the storm was at its peak. St. George thinks he’s relatively lucky, as his house suffered minimal damage.

Other residents were not so lucky. A neighbour’s house was flooded and a tree fell on many other houses in town.

The damage to Rockford is only evident while driving. Many locals, including Heidi Johnson, the town clerk, said they spoke to octogenarians who had lived in Rockford for a long time and had never seen anything like the storm that hit Thursday.

For Johnson, the storm’s track was unique, as most of the city‘s outskirts weren’t hit that hard. Johnson has a farm 6 miles from town that wasn’t hit as much as the town.

“Looks like someone got revenge on Rockford last night,” Johnson said.

While the storm was terrifying, the community response and teamwork was tremendous, according to several Rockford residents.

“Everybody in Rockford jumped up and started cleaning up,” Trejbal said.

Many farmers brought heavy machinery there to help clear the roads. Many other residents were directing traffic and watching their neighbors.

Johnson said she drives around Rockford to check on seniors who don’t have family there to care for them. She wants to make sure everyone is okay.

“We’re really lucky no one was injured,” Johnson said.

According to Johnson and Trejbal, townspeople have been focused on cleaning up the Rockford City Park in preparation for the Rockford Auto Show on Saturday.

St. George said everyone helps everyone in Rockford.

“We’ll be back to normal in a week or two,” he said.

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