Smoot After the Microburst: What the Weather Service Found and What's Left to Do Before Snow

"I was mostly getting phone calls of, 'Hey, we fixed this. Where should we go next?'" That is how volunteer organizer LaMunyon described the Saturday after the storm to the Star Valley Independent. He had planned to drive around Smoot, find the hardest-hit homes and send crews to them. In most places, people had already shown up.

That Saturday set the pattern for everything since. The official response to the August 28 microburst was fast and short. Lower Valley Energy had most of the power back overnight, and the National Weather Service filed its finding eleven days later. The rest of the recovery has been done by neighbors, local crews and individual households, and that work continues now, nearly eight weeks after the storm. With winter close, two jobs are left: deciding what to do with damaged trees and hauling away what has already come down.

The Official Record Closed in Eleven Days

The storm hit around 7:30 p.m. on Friday, August 28, and it moved quickly. The weather service's first description, quoted by the Star Valley Independent, was a "microburst with the storm strengthening quickly and then dropping its core of rain and hail just as quickly directly over the valley between Smoot and Afton."

Many Smoot residents reported a tornado. The National Weather Service's Riverton office, in a report released Tuesday, September 8, did not confirm one. Its survey said damage "occurred primarily in the Osmond, WY to Smoot, WY area, consistent with typical severe storm outflow," and found "no evidence of tornadic winds" even though radar showed broad rotation well above the ground. The same report described wind-driven hail "up to quarter-sized" that stripped leaves from trees and damaged siding. The Independent's September 9 story carries the full quote, and it says Smoot took the majority of the damage.

The utility side was handled almost as quickly. Trees on lines, broken poles and a downed conductor cut power to more than 2,000 locations. Lower Valley Energy sent 13 linemen and five support staff, Mountainside Power and private contractors helped, and most residents had power back before 9 a.m. Saturday. CEO Bear Prairie told the Independent that more than 1,000 of the roughly 2,000 affected members were back on within the first few hours. Spots with broken poles took the longest, because crews had to set and frame new poles and rebuild parts of the distribution system.

So by the second week of September, the weather service had classified the event and the grid was rebuilt. Fallen trees, torn roofs and broken windows were still on people's property, and that is the part of the recovery the rest of this post is about.

Saturday Morning Ran on Local Equipment

The Independent's September 19 feature names the businesses that brought equipment. Vista Tree Care arrived with two wood-chipper trucks. DNS Excavation brought a loader to haul large trees, Jerry Balls brought equipment to move brush piles, and Shan Townsend and DRC, Inc. sent crews. Neighbors brought dump trailers, chainsaws, skid steers and food, including Red Baron Drive-In cheeseburgers delivered to people still clearing their yards.

At a family property in Smoot, a wedding was set for Saturday evening, and the storm hit just after the rehearsal. According to the Independent's September 2 report, family and friends cleared the site with chainsaws, trucks, trailers, tractors and shovels, and the ceremony took place there that evening as planned.

That first weekend cleared driveways, power-line hazards and anything blocking a door. The slower work is still underway. The September 19 feature said roofs still needed replacing, windows still needed repair, trees still needed removal, and families were still dealing with insurance claims and damaged vehicles.

The County Discussed Hauling Trees

At the Lincoln County Commission's September 1–2 meeting, Commissioner Bowers said the county was "looking into help" to haul storm-felled trees from Smoot, Osmond and Fairview. The official proceedings record the discussion but no decision, site or deadline. The September 15 minutes have no storm-debris item. Neither does the agenda for the October 6–7 meeting. The county's landfill page sends residents to the IDAWY Solid Waste District for current hours, rules and rates.

As of this week, the county has not set up a collection program, so each household is on its own for debris. A pile of limbs sitting in a Smoot yard in late October is waiting for a trailer and a trip north, and the snow will arrive either way. Before hauling anything, though, it helps to sort what really needs to come down this fall from what can wait.

A Stripped Tree Is Not a Dead Tree

Rows of bare trees in late summer were one of the strangest sights after the storm. The Independent photographed a line of trees in Smoot with every leaf gone. In October, a bare tree is hard to tell apart from any other bare tree, which makes it tempting to cut everything that looked bad in September.

Extension guidance says that is usually premature. Nebraska Extension's storm-damage guide says healthy trees with minor hail defoliation can survive. It treats loss of 50 percent or more of the foliage as major damage that makes recovery harder, and it notes that leaf loss alone does not mean a tree is dead. For a tree that is still standing and structurally sound, spring leaf-out is the real test.

Whether a tree comes down this fall should depend on its structure, not how bare it looks. Here is what the extension guidance supports for the next few weeks:

1. Remove loose or hanging limbs promptly, when it is safe. Cut cleanly just outside the branch collar rather than leaving stubs or cutting into the trunk.
2. Go easy on pruning paint, and do not top trees. Nebraska Extension does not recommend wound dressing as standard practice, with an exception for storm-damaged oak or American elm that need remedial pruning. The University of Wyoming's tree owner's manual advises against topping.
3. Water until the ground freezes. The University of Wyoming's tree owner's manual advises checking soil moisture in fall, watering when the soil is dry and stopping once it freezes. It also warns against keeping soil saturated for more than 24 hours.
4. Call an arborist for the big jobs. The same manual recommends a professional for canopy work, large or hanging limbs that cannot be reached safely from the ground, chainsaw work and split trees.
5. Stay at least 10 feet away from power lines. The manual says never to prune within 10 feet of utility lines. Since trees on lines caused most of the August outage, this applies to plenty of yards in Smoot.

Sorting this way usually shrinks the fall workload. Hanging limbs, split trunks and anything near a line come down now. A stripped tree that is still sound can wait until it either leafs out or doesn't in May.

The Run to Strawberry Creek Road

Of the three Lincoln County facilities the county lists, IDAWY's Thayne site is the one in Star Valley. Here are the details IDAWY currently posts:

The gap between the two rates matters for storm cleanup. Shingles, siding and broken window frames go in at $115 a ton, while yard waste goes in at $50. A load that mixes roofing debris with branches can end up charged at the higher rate, so keeping the two in separate loads can lower the bill. That depends on how the scale classifies the load, which is one more reason to call ahead.

IDAWY's FAQ defines green waste as compostable organic material, using grass clippings and leaves as examples. It does not say whether whole trunks or stumps qualify. A separate notice on the IDAWY homepage says lumber and construction materials must be no longer than 8 feet for processing. That notice applies to lumber, not limbs, but cutting long pieces down before the trip costs little. Before loading a trailer full of cottonwood, call the scale at 307-883-4666 to ask how trunks and stumps are handled and to confirm the posted hours and fees. Tarp the load either way, since an untarped load adds $20.

The Thayne site's posted hours show no seasonal change, but Saturday's 4:45 p.m. entry cutoff still matters. For most Smoot households, a weekend run to Strawberry Creek Road is the realistic way to clear what's left of the pile before snow covers it.

If you're working through roof repairs, tree removal or a claim timeline on a Smoot or Osmond property and want a local opinion on what to tackle first, Speakman Realty Group is glad to help. Brandon Burnham's building and remodeling background is part of our team, and we're happy to talk through what you're seeing. Contact Us.