Bonanza Valley area hit with massive wind, rain storm (VIDEO)

Just before 11 p.m. on Tuesday, July 25, a severe rain and wind storm pounded across the Brooten and Belgrade areas. The strongest punch of wind battered Brooten for over 15 minutes as torrential rain fell. Brooten first responders went quickly to work tracking at least 15 downed power lines in town.

Threats of severe storm activity continued throughout the overnight hours. The National Weather Service reported winds in the 50 to 75 mph range across the New London-Belgrade-Brooten areas. The Brooten and Sedan areas reported over 3.5 inches of rain through the night.

By Wednesday morning after sunrise, clean up efforts led by the Brooten Fire Department were in full effect. The American Red Cross was in Brooten on Tuesday afternoon checking in elderly residents and handing out water bottles to clean up crew workers.

Editor's note: with a front row seat, watching outsiders and local residents come together to help out our town was heartwarming to say the least. The town of Brooten is not unlike any small town across America: we will band together and help one another in good times and in bad times. As difficult as the damage was to work through in town, it has been nothing less than marvelous to watch everyone come together helping one another, young and old alike.

Video has been added to this web article. A second web article related to this storm was posted on Thursday, July 27; you can find it under the "News" tab.