Quarry Springs hit by strong winds

Quarry Springs Park in Colfax experience high winds on June 15 that ripped the roof of a building and caused additional damage throughout the park. A storm came through late in the evening with strong winds that damaged multiple buildings throwing debris across the park.

The block building sustained the main damage to the park when its roof came off and was thrown from its base.

“They both flew off the top of the building, you know metal, wood and rubber roofing hit our office,” Quarry Springs Park Board member Kim Seebeck said.

The office building also lost shingles during the storm along with nails, screws and other sharp objects as well as lumber and metal sheets spread across the area. The park board does not yet know what the cost is going to be to repair the damage that was done to the park.

“We are insured by the City of Colfax so we are waiting for an adjuster to visit the site,” Seebeck said.

Greg Rhames, who runs the kayak rentals at the park, was getting ready to close the park up for the day when the strong winds blew through.

“All of the sudden I see the roof just come right off and blow basically all the way across our park,” Rhames member of the park board said.

The strong wind not only ripped the roof off but it spread the debris across the park including into trees and other hard to reach places.

“We had material and debris spread probably 200 yards from the building. We had pieces of roofing up in trees. We had power lines and poles get snapped in half,” Rhames said.

Rhames said that some of the roof that came off of the block building also made it’s way over to the office building and did some damage. He also said that the entire event probably lasted about five minutes.

While the moment was very intense it is good that no one was injured during the strong winds.

Following the storm, more than a dozen volunteers came out to help clean up the debris. The park was closed briefly to ensure the safety of anyone using the area due to the presence of sharp materials.

Four roll off dumpsters were filled in the clean up effort and the park re-opened June 19 and held the inaugural Paddle Skedaddle June 22.

Contact Dustin Teays at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or dteays@newtondailynews.com