NEWELL—On Sunday, August 16, a severe storm came through Newell fast and furious, bringing with it intense rainfall and high winds before leaving as quickly as it came. But in its wake, it left the little town with a lot of damage.
The Newell School District was supposed to start the 2026-2027 school year on August 17, but the fierce storm caused a delay. Sheets of rain hit the school so fast it caused flooding. Most of the buildings took on water. The flooding was so bad that the first day of school had to be postponed by a day.
This isn’t the first time the old school has had some problems, so when the head of maintenance, Ryan Niman, received the call that water was coming into the school, he knew what to do. “They called me during the storm and let me know that water was coming in, and I said, ‘All right, we have a plan, we know what to do and as soon as it stops, we’ll come clean up.’ And so by the time I got here, people were already working,” he explained.
With the amount of water the storm dumped in a very short time, the school didn’t stand a chance! “It was definitely a lot of water. In our main drain area, out in front of our main entrance, I was in water probably about ankle to mid-shin deep,” said Niman. “That flows right towards our front doors, and then in the basement of the high school, about the same—enough to cover your foot and same in the Austin lobby as well.”
With so much water falling from the sky, very little of the school was left untouched. “Our ag science building does very well and that one didn’t have any flooding. Our main building down our main hallway was the biggest one hit. Luckily, our classrooms are a little elevated from our main hallway, so water didn’t make it into any classrooms,” shared Niman. “But our middle school gym, our main hallway, our teachers’ lounge did have some water in it. Our old high school building was built in 1922, I believe, water made its way down to the basement in there, and then also our Austin Auditorium building—the parking lot there also kind of flows towards the building, and so the lobby there also was flooded. So we had three buildings in three different major areas that had standing water.”
Newell School District was able to put out a call for help with the emergency cleanup of the flooding right after it occurred. The citizens of Newell showed up and cleaned up the mess so the school could open for the school year on Tuesday, August 18.
Over 20 eager helpers came to the school on a Sunday evening to help clean up the water before any real damage could occur. “Multiple families just started showing up with shop vacs and fans—there were multiple students that live in town that walked down to the school to help, so it was great—it was great to see,” explained Niman. “We were able to catch it in time to where the water didn’t sit for very long or build up.”
All of the help made quick work of the cleanup. “I estimated we were going to be there until at least midnight cleaning up, but I had no idea that like 20 minutes later there would be as many people here as there was, and we got everybody out of here a decent hour so that everybody could go home and rest,” said Niman.
Fans were left to run all night to help the school dry out, and by the next day, everything was back to normal and ready to welcome students back to school.
The quick turnaround was made possible by those who showed up to help. “We are really thankful to the community. I mean, if the water would have got left here overnight, or if I’d have been by myself—the few of us, we’d have been here all night easily. So, to be able to have it cleaned up and fans running and everyone home by 8 p.m., that was just amazing.”
Just outside of town, at the Newell Golf Course, the same storm ripped the roof off of the golf cart garage and knocked down power lines. The area was closed and the public was asked not to drive out to the golf course or the parking lot until the power lines were fixed. The clubhouse was closed as well. By Monday morning the power was restored and the lines were fixed.
Throughout the town there were reports of downed tree branches but the city was unable to collect them until the road to the dump dried out, so for now, the cleanup continues around Newell.
See more pictures and read the full issue of the Belle Fourche Beacon by clicking here.
