Monday’s strong winds damage gas station near Colorado Springs
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- A gas station/convenience store apparently sustained the area's worst damage from strong winds that blew through on Monday.
The Rivon Store on Highway 85/87, just east of the Colorado Springs city limits, had the overhang for its gas pumps shredded and nearly blown off its supports.
The store was closed Tuesday, with caution tape and "Road Closed" signs sealing off its parking lot; a handwritten note on the door apologized to customers for the inconvenience.
The store's owner declined to speak on camera but said that he believes insurance will cover his damages; the store itself appeared undamaged but the owner gave no estimate for reopening.
It was the only significant damage reported from Monday's strong winds.
Rose Bream lives in the Lazy Days mobile home village next to the store, and said authorities were initially concerned that the wind would also blow the debris onto their homes.
"The wind was really bad," she recalled. "I was scared that some of the trees were going to blow down. I didn't hear anything up there (at the store), I don't believe. I just was worried about the trees."
Another village resident who lives neatest the store said off-camera that she thought she heard metal twisting.
The store is a favorite place for Ricky Lowrey to buy gasoline and lottery tickets.
"I'm astounded that it did that much damage," he said. "The wind just lifted it, crushed it or whatever it did. This was probably just an oddity. The gusts just happened to be here."
Some parts of the KRDO13 viewing area had it worse.
Wind-blown snow and snow drifts closed many roads and highways on the southeastern plains between Springfield, Trinidad, La Junta and Lamar.
There was at leas one report of a driver spending the night in their vehicle after being stuck in a ditch.
Late Tuesday morning, the Colorado Department of Transportation had reopened the key routes of U.S. 160 and Highway 109; however, several roads and highways remained closed as snowplow crews kept working to clear those roads.
