RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- Tornadoes that tore across the northern Plains destroyed a home and school in rural South Dakota, the National Weather Service said Tuesday. No injuries were reported.
The storms Monday also dumped heavy rain and hail on Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Weather service hydrologist Melissa Smith said no children were in the Progress School in Perkins County when the twister hit. She said it had not opened for classes since Friday.
Betty Nuzum, 73, who lost her home in Meade County, S.D., told the Rapid City Journal that she took shelter in an old bus dug into the side of a bank, and watched as her home was destroyed.
"I'd just looked out the window when it went flying by," she said.
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Western South Dakota suffered heavy rain and large hail, and about 3 inches of snow fell on higher elevations of the Black Hills, Smith said. Winds gusting to about 70 mph overturned a semitrailer on Interstate 90 near Belvidere, she said.
A semitrailer also blew over in Wells County in North Dakota, where weather service meteorologist Patrick Ayd in Bismarck said strong winds, not tornadoes, did most of the damage.
"Especially southeast and to the east of Bismarck, a pretty good line of thunderstorms developed and strong winds hit a number of small towns along the way," Ayd said.
The weather service said straight-line winds of up to 110 mph damaged farm buildings and trees near Alliance, Neb.
, and ripped the roof off an apartment building in Scottsbluff.
The central North Dakota town of Harvey also appeared hard hit, with damage to a building at the airport and numerous trees and power lines down, Ayd said.
Damage was reported to the fire hall roof in Linton, N.D., and numerous farm buildings across the state were damaged or destroyed, according to weather service reports.
Some cities, including Stanley in North Dakota and Rapid City in South Dakota, dealt with street flooding caused by heavy rains, the weather service said.
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Ayd and Smith said the agency was sending out teams Tuesday to assess damage.
Officials in the Black Hills National Forest of western South Dakota and northeast Wyoming said more than 3 inches of rain and high winds left unstable soils, washed out roads and weakened trees. The public was asked to avoid forest roads and any unnecessary activities until the ground dried out and stabilized.
Wind also tore the roof off an apartment building in Scottsbluff, Neb., and baseball-size hail was reported in neighboring Gering, according to the Scottsbluff Star-Herald.
Up to 5 inches of rain fell in parts of the northern Nebraska panhandle and produced flooding on the White River and Little Cottonwood Creek. The National Weather Service reported three-quarters of an inch of rain in 5 minutes near Bridgeport.
