Fortunately, none of the cars appeared to be crushed in the wreckage.
It’s every car collector’s worst nightmare: having your prized stable of vehicles, which you lovingly waxed and polished regularly, fall victim to an act of nature. A storm in South Dakota recently obliterated a building housing several prized cars. Jerry Loen of Wakonda heard a weather alert at 6:15 am on July 17 and quickly got his family to safety in the basement of his home. While fortunately nobody was hurt, the barn housing several of Loen’s vehicles didn’t withstand the winds and down it came.
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Numerous vehicles could be seen in the wreckage and as neighbors helped remove heaps of wood. Among them was a black Chevy SSR, the interesting cross between a sports car and truck. A white fifth-generation Chevy Camaro was also buried, along with an India Ivory over Regal Turquoise Chevy Tri-Five sedan. To say that Loen is a Chevrolet man would be stating the obvious.
The storm doesn’t appear to have been a tornado, but that doesn’t appear to be for certain. Loen told local reporters the wind wasn’t that loud. So you can imagine his shock to emerge from his home afterwards, finding the old barn he thought would protect his cars had collapsed on top of them.
The barn also held sentimental value, which had sat for a long time on the property where Loen’s wife grew up. The wedding reception for his daughter was held inside. Various pieces of furniture, as well as metal garage signs and other paraphernalia could be seen in the wreckage, indicating it was probably a bit of a man cave. Now that space has been destroyed.
Other than no people being hurt, there were some rays of hope in this incident. None of the cars appeared to be severely damaged, especially the yellow C5 Chevy Corvette, which seemed to escape virtually unscathed.
Photo: SiouxlandProud.com
