Heavy winds blow away pieces of daycare's roof

The roof of the old St. Joseph's Catholic School, where the Head Start program is now housed located on 6th Street, was in tatters and strewn across the lawn Tuesday morning.

Captain Justin Trout of the Kimball Police Department and Deputy Dwain Murdoch of the Kimball County Sheriff's Office arrived on the scene making sure that parents were able to easily find their children and get them to the safety of their homes as 35 to 45 miles per hour winds with gusts of 60 miles per hour gushed through the surrounding area, pushing debris throughout the yard of the building and throwing it along the surrounding streets.

The evacuation of the head start building came in the middle of a high wind warning issued by the National Weather Service that went into effect at approximately 3:00 a.m.

Although the scene was chaotic on the outside as debris flew through the air and parents ran to and from the building to get their children and bring them home safely, Father James Joseph of the St. Joseph's Catholic Church, which owns the building, states that the inside of the building was virtually unaffected by the heavy winds with the children being evacuated as merely a precaution.

"The damage was not where the kids are. Not where the Head Start is. It was the opposite side. The western side is the Head Start and the damage happened on the northeast side.We didn't want anything else to take place," Father Jospeh said.

No injuries were reported at the scene as the inside of the building where the children were being held was nowhere near the damaged part of the roof.

"They were safely evacuated. The parents came and took them home," Father Joseph said.

Father Joseph also states that the insurance company that covers the Head Start building has also been contacted and will come down from Scottsbluff to assess the total damage of the building and also try to find a way to keep more damage from taking its toll on the structure.

"We have called the insurance company in Scottsbluff, so they are going to come out and see if they can anchor it down so that it doesn't fly around," Father Joseph said.

However, the extent of the damage and the impact that it will have is yet to be determined.

The heavy winds also led to problems elsewhere in Kimball County with reports of a semi rollover occuring on I-80 between Kimball and Dix Tuesday morning along with a second semi blown over by the wind near mile marker 15 on I-80. Light posts throughout city were seen shaking in the wind, causing concerns by County Highway Superintendent Dave Hottell that one might blow over.

However, no injuries or futher damage to property have been reported as of press time.