Strong Winds Blow Roof Off Steamboat Condo Building
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Steamboat Springs and other parts of northwestern Colorado were hit hard Thursday by strong winds that accompanied a winter storm that blew across the state.
The entire roof of a four-story condominium complex was blown off and about 100 trees were knocked over, some landing on homes, as the winds blew in the opposite direction of what's typical for the area. Steamboat Ski Resort shut down its lifts for the day after reporting a gust of 123 mph at 7 a.m.
In southern Colorado, strong winds also prompted a blowing dust advisory for the San Luis Valley.
In Steamboat, part of the roof at the Spring Meadows Condominium was blown off at first, and the rest of it came off later, police Sgt. Scott Middleton said. The debris crashed into a nearby condo building and broke some windows, he said, but no one was injured.
Some of the falling trees crashed into chimneys and damaged the siding of houses, but they didn't cause any major damage, Middleton said.
Marlin Barad told The Steamboat Pilot that losing the giant evergreen in front of her house was "like losing an old friend."
"I'm just sick that tree is gone. It was there 30 years ago when we bought the house," she told the newspaper.
Steamboat Ski Resort spokesman Mike Lane said no lifts were damaged but the wind snapped some trail signs and broke a few windows.
The winds in the area usually come out of the west, but these came out of the northeast, said National Weather Service forecaster Jim Daniels. He said the low pressure was centered in western Arizona, which caused winds to wrap around the weather system and come in from the northeast.
Daniels said the weather service initially had reports of gusts up to 60 mph but none close to those reported by the ski resort.
Watch more video of the wind damage at the Steamboat Today website.
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