Wind ripped the siding off the east side of Lotus Treasures in downtown Webster City Tuesday night.

Kristin Larson had just stepped out into the parking lot of the Daily Freeman-Journal when the powerful winds Tuesday night ripped the metal siding off a building across the street.

“Holy crap,” she said to no one. “I was absolutely stunned.”

The newspaper’s night mailroom supervisor immediately called Webster City Police.

It was 11:01 p.m.

Lotus Treasures lost nearly all of the metal siding on the east side of its building at the corner of Second and Des Moines streets in downtown Webster City. Winds gusting from 50 to more than 60 miles per hour crumpled it into huge, loose clumps.

Hamilton County Deputy Sheriff Ryan Rupiper, who caught a photo of the damage at the height of the storm, texted a friend: “By far worst storm I’ve worked in.”

The storm dropped about 4 inches of snow overnight.

The City of Webster City was already at work dealing with other storm-related problems when Larson’s call about the building’s siding reached the police department’s dispatch.

A transformer blew and took power out for First and Division streets from the 700 to the 1200 block, according to Brian Stroner, Environmental and Safety coordinator for the City of Webster City.

This was in the wake of multiple power outages in and outside town.

He said there were still some individuals in the city whose power had not been restored; many of those sites lost power due to tree limbs falling on power lines, he said.

The city was actively working to fix the problems throughout Wednesday, he added.

Around 2:30 Wednesday afternoon, Stroner said there was still one rural electric line that needed to be repaired.

People reported that homes on the far northwest edge of the grid were still without power late in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, a crew from API Co. Services, a Webster City contractor that specializes in roofing, was busy dragging the crushed metal siding away from Lotus Treasures.

Hamilton County Sheriff Alex Pruismann, whose deputies worked steadily to help people who were stranded on the roads, said he would report numbers of rescues and accidents today.