VIDEO: One hail of a storm

We are all sinners in the hands of an angry God… or at least that was the scene in Wallace on Thursday afternoon when the second great flood was upon us.

But seriously, that was some wild weather.

Just after noon on Thursday, the skies over the Silver Valley began to darken and it became clear that a storm was a brewin’.

The National Weather Service had previously issued a Flood Watch for Shoshone County earlier in the week, so the sudden jolt of precipitation and lightning wasn’t a total shock, but the speed in which the weather system came and went was a bit.

Shoshone County Emergency Services Manager Dan Martinsen and Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office Cpt. Jeff Lee told the News-Press Thursday afternoon that, aside from a tree falling on a car in Woodland Park up Burke, no significant damage or injuries were reported as a result of the storm. That certainly didn’t mean that everything got out unscathed though.

From broken branches and fallen trees to flooded streets and marble-sized hail, the wacky weather was truly an odd sight for late-August.

“I was glad I was able to get off the freeway, because it was getting to where I didn’t have any visibility,” Martinsen said. “The hail was like quarter-inch to half-inch in size, so it was making a pretty good racket on the truck!”

As is expected with these storms, Martinsen said that many of the storm water drains experienced high-water levels, but no major flooding was seen in any of the local creeks or rivers.

“These storms have the potential to dump a whole bunch of precipitation in a short period of time and that's where you get that flash flooding.”

Examples of this flash flooding could be seen mostly on Interstate-90 and in the county seat of Wallace. Large puddles (or small lakes, depending on how you look at it) could be seen near the Center of the Universe manhole cover and down the road at the Shoshone County Public Safety Building. Known for its lack of improper drainage, this isn’t the first time that a pump has had to be used to remove unwanted water from the basement of the SCSO. When weather events like this occur, SCSO Jail Cpt. Lance Stutzke said that it isn’t uncommon to have to stack sandbags in the basement to protect sensitive items such as archives and electronics.

A quick drive around the east end of the Silver Valley showed numerous scenes of broken branches and scattered debris- not to mention a light dusting of hail.

As far as the lightning was concerned, Idaho Department of Lands- Cataldo Fire Warden Chris Myers said that while it’s still too early to tell, there were no immediate confirmed reports of new wildfires within the county.

Lightning-started fires can kick up in rural areas and smolder for days, even weeks, before gaining strength and producing smoke.

Martinsen recommends that Shoshone residents, especially those who live in areas that are at-risk of flooding, sign up for alerts through the various weather apps available and take the proper precautions necessary when a flood-watch/warning is issued.