A severe thunderstorm packing straight line winds swept through Abilene late Wednesday night.

The Dickinson County Emergency Management Director Chancey Smith confirmed the storm, with straight line winds of about 76 miles per hour,  moved through Abilene basically south of the Third and Fourth Street area. “Old Abilene Town area, the Eisenhower Museum and that really had some heavy tree damage from that wind.”

Smith stated an old lumber yard at Cedar Street and the Union Pacific railroad crossings had its’ roof torn up pretty bad. An older building in the south part of the city also lost its roof. Some trees that were as big as a person’s waist were snapped off and broken in that south end of Abilene. “We had two air conditioners on the roof of the courthouse that it probably blew five feet until the cable connecting them to the building got tight. It blew them off their foundations, 300 pound air conditioner units.” No one was injured.

Smith said significant rain was received with the storm. There was damage farther west as well. West of Abilene on Old Highway 40 there is a greyhound race track in that area. “Just about every other big tree out there was broken off and there was a huge Cottonwood tree broken off blocking Old 40 off last night. There was some tree damage to large trees on the Eisenhower Presidential Library campus. ( Photos courtesy of Dickinson County Emergency Management Director Chancey Smith )