Area residents clean up from powerful storm

A severe thunderstorm Friday in north-central Montana flattened crops - just starting to recover from five years of drought - in some areas and caused extensive property damage in Havre, officials said today.

Local insurance agents said they've received many reports of crop damage in rural areas and property damage in Havre, which received wind gusts of at least 56 mph and hail up to 1 inches in diameter.

"There was a tremendous amount of problems in property in Havre. The way we're counting them is who doesn't have a claim," Andrew Brekke of Erickson Baldwin Insurance Associates said today.

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