Severe thunderstorm causes damage in Logan

Logan was cleaning up Saturday after a violent thunderstorm produced damage around the community.

At 8:58 p.m. Friday the National Weather Service in Albuquerque received a report of damage from wind gusts of 71 mph from residents in Logan, said Meteorologist Jonathan Suk.

The wind knocked a mobile home off it’s foundation blocks on North 19th Street. The frame of the trailer was twisted causing the door not to open, said Logan Police Chief Bob Gore.

“There was one resident in the trailer and they were not injured,” Gore said. “Several RV’s parked at the Sunshine Mobile Park were blown off their jack stands as well.”

There were power lines down around the home and the propane was leaking, said Logan Fire Chief Rex Stall.

The fire department shut off the propane and made contact with the power company to make sure the power was not about to come back on as the crew tried to remove the resident, Stall said.

Stull said that he received some calls before the storm hit Logan and went out to spot the storm on North N.M. 39.

“I was driving south on Highway 39 and when I crossed the 540 loop I was engulfed in hail, strong winds and rain,” Stall said. “There was zero visibility, I thought the windows were going to get beaten out of the truck.”

The power was knocked out in Logan for six hours as a result of the storm, Gore said. There were four roofs blown off of boat storage buildings at Ute Junction Tackle shop, two carports were destroyed and a garage door was damaged in the Paradise Hills subdivision.

Suk said that there was no tornado touchdown near Logan or in Quay County and the powerful gust of wind was the result of an intense storm system that started near the New Mexico/Colorado border.

“The added precipitation in the storm’s main core aided in the production of the wind gust that caused the damage in Logan, Suk said.

Suk said that the gust of wind that struck Logan was not a microburst, which is a brief sudden violent downdraft of wind affecting a small and specific area.

The powerful wind gust that was reported in Logan affected a large area which is not the same type of weather characteristics associated with a microburst, Suk said.

The same storm system produced four inches of penny size hail near Nara Visa, Suk said.