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Pawnee Rock blasted by high winds
Pawnee Rock building demolished in wind June 2025
The building owned by Pawnee Rock resident Fred Ross adjacent to the Pawnee Rock Post Office was demolished in Tuesday’s high winds, leaving the north side of the post office exposed. Cleanup continued in the expectation that another storm would arrive in the area Tuesday evening, but the high winds, rain and hail struck further east in the state.

PAWNEE ROCK — Pawnee Rock City Clerk Chris Mead was out of her office Tuesday morning. She does have errands that she usually runs when she can that might include the short drive to Great Bend and back, but Tuesday morning was special; she was viewing damage from Tuesday’s early morning rainstorm. 

The storm, which hit Pawnee Rock around 2:30 a.m., caught many by surprise as they woke up to go to work; leaving downed tree branches, damaged outbuildings and items to track down from winds that were clocked at more than 100 mph.

When Mead awoke, she discovered that it had rained during the night. “Normally, I sleep right through storms,” she said. Mead is in the process of moving from one house to another and was staying in her new home Tuesday night. She learned, however, that the storm had damaged the roof to her old home as well as a neighbor’s.

“My house got hit, but I’m not staying there; I’m in the process of moving to another house so I was at the new place. I noticed that everything was wet from the rain and everything was fine there, but then I started getting pictures of storm damage from everybody. I thought, ‘no wonder I slept so good, it was a really bad storm.’”

Tree branches were down throughout town; the Co-op had a tank blown into a field. When she got to work, however, she noticed that the building owned by Fred Ross adjacent to the city Post Office had been reduced to a pile of brick and twisted metal. “Our fence is down in the back (of the city office) but I haven’t looked at it yet.”

The Barton County Sheriff’s Office noted that the storm impacted several communities including Pawnee Rock. The BCSO was in the process of assessing damages.

“We’re out getting a lot cleared off the roads,” Mead said, noting that Barton County had called to offer help with cleanup. “We want to get as much done now as we can before the next storm hits and just blows stuff around.”

Another storm was expected for Tuesday night, bringing more rain, wind and the possibility of large hail. They didn’t get it.

The Post Office was built in 1950 and is an important link to the community’s past, she said.

“I’m really worried about the roof line to the post office,” she said. “I don’t like it that it’s vulnerable to another storm. I don’t want us to lose our Post Office; we’ve been fighting to keep it for years.”