Danielle Ferguson

dbferguson@argusleader.com

A day of torrential downpour Thursday left Sioux Falls full of flooded roads, abandoned vehicles, electrical outages and a few buildings struck by lightning.

The National Weather Service said 3.61 inches of rain fell at the airport, breaking the previous record of 1.5 inches on this day in 1988.

“That blew that record out of the water,” said Jim Murray with the National Weather Service.

That’s nothing compared to southeastern Sioux Falls, which received 6.05 inches. Points across southern Sioux Falls rang in between 4 and 6 inches, Murray said.

The city didn’t get hit with any major damage, said city emergency manager Regan Smith. Multiple intersections were closed, especially in southeastern Sioux Falls, but the city didn’t receive any reports of sewer backups.

“From what we can see, we think our systems performed very well,” Smith said. “It was a very significant event on the southern part of town. We expect it to be a very high event in our history.”





Northbound Interstate 29 to northbound Interstate 229 was closed briefly when water flooded over a portion of the road. The areas of 41st Street from Glendale to Western and 85th Street and Grange Avenue were heavily flooded throughout the afternoon, as well.

Roads started clearing up after around 5:30 p.m.

More than 5,000 people were without power for a few hours. An Xcel Energy power outage map showed 5,903 people without power up until about 5 p.m., when power was restored.

A lightning strike caused a structure fire on the 800 block of S. 7th Street in Brandon. Nobody was injured and the house didn’t receive major damage.

Harrisburg High School was also struck by lightning during the rainfall.

The lightning strike happened shortly before noon at the school, which has about 4,000 students, said Superintendent Jim Holbeck. No students or staff members were hurt, and damage was confined to the roof, he said.

The rest of the week’s forecast is calmer. There is a slight chance of thunderstorms early Friday morning, and then a slight chance of rain in the afternoon. The weekend into early next week are expected to be dry, with highs in the low 80s.