Severe Storm Leaves Trail of Damage, Thousands Without Power

CLICK HERE for PART II of the storm photo galleryKSL Team Coverage

Home video shows Nature's fury at the door of a house in Provo, but today's sudden storms slammed several sections of the Wasatch Front and they left a path of destruction.

David Allen, Pilot: "The wind, the rain, the hail, it was just strong."

Now that the storms have cleared, we have a lot to tell you and more to show you.

At least 45 big power poles are down, leaving this entire Southwest Provo neighborhood in the dark. About 1,000 homes are without any electricity and the lights could be out for another couple of days.

"It's a mess."

That's how veteran Provo Power linemen reacted to seeing all the power poles and wires down. It's a mess from a powerful storm that blew across South Provo.

Ilona Klein:"The power lines are down, the trees are snapped, kind of looks like a war zone. There is no fences in the back yard; these are my neighbor's trees that are across the road."

Nissa Hanegan, Provo Resident: "Everything is just pushed from west to east where everything went, we have tramps from our yard, trees are uprooted, the damage is just devastating."

Matt Urban took video of the storm as it hit his neighborhood.

Matt Urban: "The rain came first and it was coming down very strong and heavy, and then the hail stones. It hit so hard that it cut visibility down to about 50 feet or less, so it was an extremely powerful storm."

When the storm cleared, damage was everywhere, including the metal roofing sheets from the storage sheds that got wrapped around into the power lines above. A 50 year old tree in the courtyard of Sunset View Elementary was uprooted. And despite trees onto homes and live power lines onto cars, no one was hurt.

Lewis Billings, Mayor of Provo: "To the best of our knowledge, we have no fatalities or serious injuries. We think that is incredible, the power of this storm and the devastation that it left behind."

By evening, the cleanup was already underway.

Brigham Hopkins, Provo Resident: "It looks a little bit better, still a big mess."

Police are keeping people away from the hardest hit areas tonight, out of safety concerns. And the power company is hoping to get the power back on as soon as they can.

The Provo Airport is closed tonight because the runway has no lights, but that might be the least of the problems.

Gary Ranch, Airport Employee: "When we were inside the hangar, it was so noisy I didn't even notice that the back of the hangar was gone."

That weather damaged more than a dozen buildings at the airport. It lifted some planes off the ground, snapped their tie downs, then tipped them over. Provo is just one of many communities, the storm hit.

A view from Chopper Five shows one home, in Oakley torn apart by the storm and it looks like the wind picked up the pieces and just tossed them around. It also toppled trees, even uprooted some.

And thousands of others in the Salt Lake Valley are still in the dark tonight. Rocky Mountain Power estimates about 17- thousand customers have no power yet. Those outages are scattered. Repair crews hope to restore electricity to about half of those people by midnight.

Now that the damage is done, the clean up begins. Tree removal is keeping workers busy, and the phones are ringing off the hooks at insurance companies.

One of the most heavily damaged neighborhoods is the area just north of the REI in east Millcreek. Neighbors there aren't wasting any time clearing away debris and helping each other get the job done, even before insurance companies are notified..

Like the big bad wolf, severe thunderstorms blew just about everything down, leaving even the smallest nest without a limb to stand on.

Analisa Tucker: "It was literally like the sky was falling down on the home."

Actually, it was a tree falling down on Analisa Tucker's home. A tree so big, from the street you can't really see her home.

Analisa Tucker: "Like a lion roaring, that's what it felt like."

Down the street, Alex Smith was busy clearing heavy tree limbs off his garage.

Alex Smith: "I'm probably missing four tops of trees."

It's not just property damage though; their street will never look or feel the same.

Robyn Aikens: "I've been up here for 23 years, this tree is older than that."

Insurance companies say before starting the clean up, do a few things to make sure the cost is covered.

Dorothy Nuffer, All State Insurance Insurance: "Cover it up, take photos, you know, and if you have to get emergency repair, get receipts and keep those and call your insurance agent as soon as you can."

Many businesses, including insurance companies, were closed today because the power has been out.

Gordy Jacobsen: "Just going to call tomorrow and hope they have an answer for me."

Downed trees have caused the most damage to homes.

Dorothy Nuffer: "Basically you need to check with your homeowner policy, whoever you have it with, and make sure the policy does cover fallen trees."

Dorothy Nuffer: "If you have damaged powerlines, water coming in your house, you may just need to call a catastrophe company first and have them come in and take care of it."

Cars are another story. They usually require comprehensive coverage, something many folks may be rethinking after this storm.

Those folks in the Millcreek area will have to stay in touch with their insurance companies. It's one of the hardest hit places in Salt Lake County. Almost anywhere you go on the East Bench, you'll see damage.

We've all seen rainstorms before, but maybe not like this.

Virginia Burton, Millcreek Resident: "The rain and the wind was as hard as I've ever seen."

Many people along Salt Lake County's East Bench might agree.

Dean Jarman, Millcreek Resident: "It was like torrents coming down. I've never seen anything like it in my life.

And the wind?

Irene Forsgren, Holladay Resident: "It's just terrible destruction. It makes you sick."

Irene Forsgren got used to all the trees standing in her Holladay neighborhood, being there 55 years will do that, but she'll never get used to seeing them on houses, cars, you name it.

Irene Forsgren: "I've been through a lot with these trees, and never anything like this."

A garage is Millcreek was crushed. Right before its end, an eight-year old boy was staying in a garage for shelter from the rain, when he decided to make a run for a house.

Josh Glauser, Millcreek Resident: "I was running and I turned around, and I saw the trees fall, just land on the shed, and it just smashed the shed."

It's a good thing Josh Glauser wasn't in here when the trees came down.

Josh Glauser: "We would've got hurt really bad."

In South Salt Lake, crews were trying to keep the storm drains clear, as drivers did their best to get onto I-80. Add to all of this downed power lines, debris everywhere, and more trees...

Andrea Clawson, Holladay Resident: "There are trees like getting blown over and split in half."

And it's going to be quite a clean up for the east bench.

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