Clouds bearing constant lightning and thunder rolled into central Goshen County about 10 p.m. and hung around to drench communities well into the Nebraska Panhandle until the early hours of Tuesday morning.

"I called the GID (Goshen Irrigation District) at midnight and told them we had an awful lot of water running out here," said Shawn Booth, a farmer who lives one and a half miles north of Veteran, Wyo. "I have a dike on my place that has never run over before, but last night it did.

"In the 20 years Ive lived on this place, Ive never seen rain like this."

Booths rain gauge registered 4.25 inches of rain from the time the storm started about 10 p.m. until Tuesday morning. The worst downpour ended about 1 a.m.

By mid-morning, Booth estimated Cherry Creek was running at about 500 cubic feet per second (cfs) through one of his pastures because it had no where else to go.

He said it had washed over a county road east of the Veteran highway and was out of its banks for about five miles in the area.

According to Ted Steffens, head of the Wyoming highway maintenance department in Goshen County, Cherry Creek went over the bridge on Highway 85 south of Torrington at about 5 a.m. Tuesday.

Steffens said he had reports late Monday night that the Veteran highway was washed out between mile markers 2 and 9, but it was water and mud running across the pavement.

The storm continued east through the Huntley community on its way into Nebraska. Jack Foos, who lives about one and a half miles northeast of Huntley, said they received 3.5 inches of rain in about half an hour between 10 and 11 p.m.

"The wind was really wild, and my son said he headed for the basement at 11:08," Foos said.

Strong winds and hail targeted crops in the neighborhood, leaving them on the ground or badly battered.

"The field man was out and checked our beets," Foos said Tuesday afternoon. "It looks like they are about 80 percent defoliated."

In addition to the hail and wind, Foos said there is considerable water damage to the fields.

At the Galen Herdt farm, nine miles southwest of Torrington on the Veteran highway, 2.5 inches of rain was reported. There was no hail, but the wind was very strong.

"Well have to re-ditch everything," Kathy Herdt said Tuesday afternoon. "The wind flattened a lot, but it could have been worse."

Gary Craig, superintendent of the Goshen County Road and Bridge Department, said his crews were busy all day Tuesday checking roads and marking dangerous areas.

"We closed Road 54 north of Huntley because it was washed so bad, and we wont be able to get in there to make repairs until Wednesday," Craig said early Tuesday. The washout was about half a mile east of the end of the oil on Road 54, and water had quit flowing by mid-morning.

Union Pacific Railroad crews were also checking for possible damage along the tracks in the rain-drenched area.

Jim Foster, superintendent of public works in Torrington, said the storm did not cause major problems in town.

"The rain was more than the 10 year average, so it took some time for it to drain, but as far as I know, there wasnt any damage, other than some erosion in alleys and the dirt driveway coming in the back side of Eastern Wyoming College. But, well be able to work on that right away."

Foster added that the retention ponds at the new baseball fields on the north edge of Torrington had filled up from the more than 2 inches of rain that fell over night.

In Nebraska, the storm charged through the Mitchell Valley, leaving more water than anyone wanted to cope with. Homes had water in their basements and farmers will have trouble irrigating for the rest of the season because of the damage to the fields.

According to Jerry Darnell, senior agriculturist for Western Sugar, there was no hail damage in that area, and only slight damage south of Lyman, where there were reports of 5 inches of rain being recorded across the Wyoming state line.

Throughout the night, Goshen Irrigation District personnel were checking the canals and other waterways to prevent washouts and other damage.

The Cherry Creek lateral did overflow across the Veteran highway about two miles from Torrington, but traffic was flowing and repairs made by early Tuesday morning.

As of press time, Holly Sugar and Goshen Irrigation District personnel were unavailable for comments.