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• Sunday storm brings huge hail to Star Prairie

Star Prairie resident Kim Palmer and Trevor Gibson, a bartender at Fonda's Bar and Grill in Star Prairie, said the village got ten minutes of hail that was golf-ball-sized or sometimes bigger, and it left large numbers of dents in many cars about an inch deep.

Numerous windshields also were broken out, they said, and other reports stated hail in the immediate area got up to baseball-sized. There were high winds, as well, and trees down, but it was the hail that did the damage.

Although her garden was left intact, Palmer said at least one of her cars was "totaled" and that she will need repair to her roof. "The deck was turned really white," she said regarding the hail.

Gibson said that all 20 cars in the bar's lot received hail damage when the storm hit about 6 p.m. Sunday.

This was the same eastward-traveling storm system that produced a tornado and killed a baby in Hugo, Minn. almost an hour earlier. It also destroyed 43 homes there.

Once on the Wisconsin side of the St. Croix River, the storm moved through an area between East Farmington and Somerset, then passed through Star Prairie and on toward Amery. Somewhat smaller-sized hail also was reported later in the early evening in Houlton.