UPDATE: 4:45 p.m. Wednesday: Photos capture damage to Nyssa area – new photos added.
UPDATE: 4:30 p.m. Wednesday: Message from Nyssa City Manager Jim Maret: “Please everyone stay home unless it is absolutely necessary alot of the roads are flooded and dangerous right now. By being out it is hindering our cleanup efforts so for your own safety and ours stay home. Thank you.”
NYSSA – A ferocious thunderstorm that rolled over Malheur County early in the afternoon of Wednesday, June 26, snapped power lines, broke canal banks, triggered flooding and damaged buildings.
Nyssa was particularly hard hit. The National Weather Service in Boise estimated that as the storm rolled over the town it packed winds of between 60 and 70 mph.
Malheur County Sheriff Travis Johnson said there is widespread flooding in Nyssa from storm drains that were inundated with rain. Flooding impacted North Third Street and Chestnut Avenue and North Second Street and Green Avenue.
Johnson said there was at least one canal break on Grand Avenue between Nyssa and Adrian.
Johnson said there were no known injuries.
He said power lines are down across Nyssa “in various places.”
He said the storm ripped the roof off an onion shed and blocked a road while a shop roof also collapsed.
Johnson said that three sheriff’s deputies and Lt. Rich Harriman, Malheur County emergency services coordinator, responded to Nyssa to evaluate damage and help with cleanup efforts.
Nyssa Police Chief Don Ballou said the storm “wrecked havoc” across town.
“The winds hit pretty hard and the storm came through fast and furious and was gone as fast as it came,” he said.
Ballou said the town was without power and the storm knocked down power lines and trees.
Idaho Power reported more than 700 people are without power in the Nyssa area.
Annie Meyer, an Idaho Power Corporations communications specialist, said crews have been deployed to the area to begin work to restore power. She said power could be restored by early evening Wednesday.
“That could change but that is what we are projecting,” said Meyer.
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