FANCY ROOF - The post-twister roof of a potato house being built in Perham for Russell Huston was good for pictures but totally useless. The roof was removed after the storm hit Friday at supper time.
A second hurricane within a period of three weeks blasted the Town of Washburn Friday at 5:30 p.m.
With winds of extreme velocity were accompanied by heavy rain, hail-stones the size of marbles and thunder and lightning.
Although no trees were uprooted, heavy damage was done to several potato fields. The potato tops were beaten down so badly in some fields farmers say it is doubtful it they will be worth, saving. On the Rodney Drake farm on the Caribou Road and the George Jordan farm the hailstones fell so heavy the fields looked as if they were snow covered.
A house trailer in Wade, owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Kim Silver and their daughter, Heidi, was blown over and reduced to rubble. However, the Silvers - who were just finishing their dinner when the storm hit - escaped without injury. The baby was found under a wall panel.
Mr. and Mrs. Silver had moved into their trailer July 4. Large pieces of the were carried across the road to an open field. The family car parked in front of the trailer was badly damaged when the trailer flipped onto it when the trailer turned over.
The twister trailed through to Perham and the metal roof on a new potato house being built for Russell Huston was so badly twisted it had to be removed.
Damage to potato crops also was done in that area.
Kim Silver Mobile Home Wreckage
Washburn town manager Sheldon Richardson reported that damage to area potato crops was severe, but that Washburn itself suffered no damage. The thunderstorm was accompanied by heavy rain and hailstones the size of marbles. Potato tops were beaten down and hail covered farm land on the Caribou Road.
In Wade, Mr. and Mrs. Kim Silver and their baby daughter, Heidi, were just finishing their supper in their mobile home when the storm struck, demolishing the trailer and badly damaging the Silver's automobile. The mobile home was blown over onto the parked by the storm and then blown apart. The baby and Mr. Silver were found under a wall panel when it was all over, but suffered only cuts and bruises. Mrs. Silver received some bruises from hailstones.
Large pieces of the trailer were blown across the adjacent road into an open field. The Silvers had been living in their mobile home since July 4.
In Perham, the metal roof on a new Potato house being built for Russell Huston was so badly twisted when the storm peeled it back that it had to be removed.
The U.S. Weather Service in Caribou found the incidence of severe storms in Washburn inexplicable. Apparently there was a path to the July 21 storm, spokesman said, but noted that thunderstorms have paths.
Rep. Harry Bragdon reported July 23 that he had spoken to the office of Civil Defense in Augusta and that a representative from the office would be in the Washburn area July 24.
Bragdon noted that Aroostook had become eligible for disaster relief following the spring floods and that as a disaster area, those regions which suffered from the recent storms possibly would be tied in "with earlier claims not yet settled."
A Civil Defense official "gave me a little encouragement" in this regard, Bragdon said. He noted that he had investigated damage to fields in one area and that some were "practically ruined."