Saturday storm will leave scars with so much tree loss

That felt like a punch to the gut.
Aurora and much of Hamilton County looked like a war zone Saturday morning when residents woke after a sleepless night to see how much damage was done during a storm unlike any in recent memory.
We’re all very accustomed to tornado warnings, severe weather alerts and wind advisories in this part of the world, but the combination of conditions that hovered for hours during the night felt different this time. The lightning sounded like it was right on top of us, striking high-profile objects again and again, and looking around the community the next day confirmed that, in fact, it was. Add to that winds forecast at 90 mph and you knew before the sun came up that this was a recipe for disaster.
The good news, first and foremost, is that we’ve heard no reports of any injuries, which is a blessing. Property can be replaced. Lives can’t.
Driving around our beloved hometown Saturday morning, however, I like many was speechless to see so many large, beautiful, decades-old trees split into pieces and strewn about like toothpicks. Streeter Park, the Aurora cemetery, the downtown square and Poco Creek Golf Course were extremely hard hit, for example, as were many other areas.
Massive tree loss was devastating in several area towns, but the impact in the rural areas was equally severe. Grain bins were twisted or blown to the ground, a barn near Giltner reportedly blew away and pivots throughout the county sustained heavy damage. Farmers had already been warned that pivot parts and/or entire systems would be difficult if not impossible to replace quickly in the wake of the COVID pandemic, so Saturday’s storm could not have come at a worse time.
Without water to sustain the heat of late July and August, crops in the field are in jeopardy, just when commodity prices had fueled a wave of ag optimism. Our hearts and prayers go out to the entire ag community as we wait and watch, together, to see how this crop year unfolds.
On a brighter note, it was uplifting as always to see neighbors helping neighbors all weekend long, doing what we do as a rural community to pick up the pieces and move on. Chain saws were buzzing and crews were working immediately to clear streets and restore power, though it’s going to take a while to move so much massive lumber.
Storm damage is usually hard to see within a week or two, but this one left some serious scars that will take years to heal. Gaping holes where  trees almost as old as the city itself used to stand will remind us that Mother Nature can be brutal. 
Kurt Johnson