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SqUARE DEALRAWLiNS CoUNTy

“A Voice for New Frontiers”

VOL. 20, NO. 38 ATWOOD, KS 67730 THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2012

Storm packs winds over 80 mph, blasts areaBy Mary Holle

An early Sunday morning freakwindstorm topped off a windy Me-morial Weekend Saturday, snappingpower poles, ripping outbuildingsapart and scattering debris formiles, sandblasting ands h r e d d i n gnewly plantedcrops, flingingshingles offroofs, uprootinglarge trees,blasting graveloff county roadsand tipping oversemi-trailers.“We saw a pe-

riod of 10 hourswith 50- to 60-mileper hour sus-tained windsfrom late Satur-day afternoonthrough earlySunday morn-ing,” ChrisSramek, meteor-ologist andowner of Decision Weather, said. “Thestorm ran from Colby to McCook.”Sramek explained that the Na-

tional Weather Service called thephenomenon of the strongest partof the storm, from midnight to 1a.m., a “wake low.” The high winds, during the

height of alumni celebrationsacross the area, were due to a low-

level jet stream that “was extremelyclose to the surface,” Sramek said.“This is not a common weatherevent, especially at that time of theday and for that long.”Instead of the jet stream moving

higher at the end of the day and

calming down wind speeds,Sramek said, the wake low formed“as the dry squall line of collapsingthunderstorms pushed the low-level jet down to the ground.”Instead of a microburst of rain,

the collapsing thunderstorms pro-duced hot air bursts that crashed tothe ground and “burst out”through the area.

Wind speeds of nearly 100 mphwere recorded by amateur weatherstations reporting on the internet.“Wind speeds were recorded

from 60- to 80-mph by the NationalWeather Service, with higher windspeeds possible,” Sramek said.

Unoffic ia l ly,the automatedweather station atthe Atwood/Rawlins CountyAirport clocked agust at 82 knots or98.4 mph, he re-ported.Temperature

fluctuations alsocontributed to thestrangeness of theweekend weather.“The tempera-

ture was over 100degrees at onepoint on Satur-day,” Sramek said.“Within 24 hours,the temperaturehad dropped to 56degrees.”Saturday tem-

peratures were hot in the afternoon,cooled down in the evening hours,but rose several degrees during thebrunt of the storm that broughtdamaging fierce south winds.

Power outages

Hurricane-force winds snapped

Photo by Kathy Davis Vrbas

Midwest Energy crews work to repair the electric utility power poledamaged by an uprooted evergreen tree toppled by winds.

Photo by Mary Holle

Utility poles along Highway 36 were snapped during the windstorm.

See ‘Windstorm,’ Page 11

Lest we

forget...

One day remains to file for county officeThere is only one day left to file

for county office positions, includ-ing two commissioner districts,township trustee and treasurers,precinct committeemen andwomen and five open hospitalboard positions. At noon, Friday,June 1, the books will be closed,according to Rawlins CountyClerk Wayne Lanning.As of noon, May 29, the follow-

ing individuals had filed for office:Wilbur Henry for county commis-sioner district 2, Craig Cox forcounty commissioner district 3,Jeri Rahe for county treasurer,Carolyn Marshall for register of

deeds, Bill Finley for sheriff,Rachel Finley and Jan Poore forcounty clerk, Jared Holste forcounty attorney and Pat Carrollfor magistrate district judge.Hospital board filings include

LeRoy Luedders for position 5,Peggy Cabrinha for position 8 andKaren Bolt for position 9.Precinct committee filings are

Gene and Meredith Hrnchir forAtwood City 1 east, Ted and Ger-tie Kastens for Atwood City 1west, Janice Sattler for AtwoodCity precinct 2, Matthew andMelissa Micek for Driftwoodtownship, Mary K. Holle for Herl

township, Jim and DestinySchroeder for Herndon City andRoger Snodgrass for Atwoodtownship.Carolyn Timm has filed for

Driftwood township trustee. RoyHubbard has filed for Rocewoodtownship trustee and Neva LouHolub has filed for Rocewoodtreasurer. Mathew Withingtonfiled for Atwood township trusteeand Tom Marks has filed for At-wood township treasurer. ChrisSchmidt has filed for Achillestownship treasurer and VirginiaHoward for Ludell townshiptrustee.

Photo by Kathy Davis-Vrbas

Zip driveLaunching into the water through the slideproves popular while swimmers are taking theirfirst dip of summer, There were 119 kids of allages on opening day at the pool in Atwood. De-bris from the windstorm prevented the pool’sopening on Memorial Day, but things are in fullswing now. Swim team members are practicingand the summer rec activities begin Monday.

News at a Glance

Story Time set to beginStory Time will begin at 11 a.m., every Wednes-

day in June for ages birth to 4 years old at the At-wood Public Library. The theme is "Dream Big Read" so the children

are invited to wear their pajamas and bring astuffed animal and a blanket if they wish. Crafts,snacks, a few songs, a story and possibly a gamewill be held at Story Time.

Retirement reception to honor SolkoA retirement reception is slated from 11 a.m.,

to 4 p.m., Thursday, May 31 for Virginia Solko,who is retiring after 29-plus years of service at theFarm Service Agency. The reception will be at theFSA office building, located east of Atwood in theindustrial park.

Hospice to meetHospice volunteers will meet at 6:30 p.m., Mon-

day, June 4 in the Rawlins County Health Centerconference room. The topic will be “Mindful Pres-ence — How to Really Listen.” Visitors are wel-come to attend.

The ‘homegrown’ doctor is inBy Kathy Davis-Vrbas

Rosalie Rossand Mary Holle

On the national scene, thephrase “health care” is a hotpolitical button. But on thelocal scene, it’s a point ofpride, when Rawlins Countyconsiders the large number ofdoctors in the health care field

this small, rural communityproduces.Since the new century

began 12 years ago, sons anddaughters of this county haveearned their doctorates inhealth care on the average ofabout one per year.Following are profiles of 11

of these alumni. The SquareDeal would like the names of

any others we may havemissed.

Nick Cahoj

Dr. Nick Cahoj is doing hisresidency in family medicineat Via Christi Hospital in Wi-chita.He is a 2003 graduate of At-

wood High School, a 2007 grad-

uate of KansasState Univer-sity with abachelors ofscience degreein biology anda 2011 gradu-ate with a doc-torate inmedicine from the University

See ‘Doctors.’ Page 12

Photo by Kathy Davis-Vrbas

A day for honoring those who serveThe flags fly in the Memorial Day breeze Monday at Atwood FairviewCemetery, where Sam Hubbard Post 46 of the American Legion con-ducted services honoring the sacrifices of men and women who haveserved and are serving their country in the armed forces.