Note: This story originally aired on September 12th, 2019.
Portions of Sioux Falls face a long road to recovery after Tuesday night’s tornado outbreak. Neighbors throughout the city are sharing their experiences and bracing for the months of clean up ahead.
John Merrigan says he couldn’t see his neighbor’s house during Tuesday night’s strong winds and heavy rain. As he moved his family to the basement, he could hear debris hitting the side of his house.
“Morning came and kinda found out it was some of the neighbor’s house that was making noise against our house. So there’s plenty to pick up. And the neighborhood is, uh, certainly something we’ve never seen before.”
Merrigan lives south of I-229 near Journey Elementary School. There are piles of driftwood and other debris along the road, and some debris lodged in the siding of houses.
Nearby, Renae Knoph looks at the side of her garage, where a wall used to be. She just moved out. The house had been on the market for only 90 days and had a buyer ready to close in three weeks. After the storm passed, Knoph got a text from her neighbor.
“—that said, ‘Fence is gone, house looks good.’ So we got in the car and drove over. He didn’t come to this side of the house to see the garage had been blown out.”
Knoph says the homebuyer has stopped by and is still planning to go through with the sale. For now their first priority is covering the damage ahead of more forecasted rain.
“Yeah you just, kinda…gotta deal with what you’re given.”
The National Weather Service confirms three EF 2 tornados touched down in Sioux Falls Tuesday night.