Saturday’s wind destroys barn

Strong winds that whipped through parts of Ozark County Saturday afternoon destroyed this barn on the Darrell Watson farm near Wasola. Watson said the barn, which stood about quarter-mile from his house, held 35 round bales of hay. His grandson, Kane Thomas, walked by the barn on his way into the woods Saturday afternoon. “He was gone 30 to 35 minutes,” Watson said. “When he came out, he called us and said the barn was standing when he went back in the woods, but it was on the ground when he came out.” At press time Tuesday the Times was unaware of any other structural damage from the winds. However, both Howell Oregon Electric Co-op and White River Valley Electric Co-op said some Ozark County customers had outages Saturday. WRVEC crews were out, systemwide, working until about midnight Saturday repairing lines brought down by falling trees or tree limbs or one power pole that broke, spokesperson Cassie Cunningham said. Howell-Oregon crews, working systemwide, were out until 4 a.m. Sunday repairing downed lines, said HOE spokesperson Dakota Bates.