Storm Lake business corridor rebuilds after April winds damage

The new Merrill Manufacturing North plant was rising again at 1428 N. Lake Ave., turning one of Storm Lake’s hardest-hit wind damage sites back into a working business corridor.

The April 18, 2025 storm was not a tornado. The National Weather Service in Sioux Falls later pegged the straight-line winds at roughly 60 to 80 mph, with local estimates around 70 mph, enough to rip apart the west side of the Merrill building and force a major reset along North Lake Avenue. The damaged structure that once held both Merrill and DaVita Kidney Care was torn down, and by early February 2026 the last of the damaged Merrill North structure was gone.

Merrill kept operating every day, even in limited capacity, while the company shifted into a 31,000-square-foot temporary structure on the parking lot east of the plant and used other space, including a leased former Silk Screen Ink building at 512 Geneseo St., for storage and support. Now the permanent replacement is going up on the same ground, a sign that production space is being restored rather than left idle.

DaVita’s return has been just as visible. The dialysis center closed immediately after the storm, then sent patients to other locations in Fort Dodge and Sioux City while crews renovated the former Dollar Tree store at 1515 N. Lake Ave. The new site opened last week, giving patients a Storm Lake address again after nearly a year of displacement. The old facility had sat at 1426 N. Lake Ave. before the windstorm.

The rebuild matters because the storm’s damage was never just one building. Buena Vista County Emergency Management said the entire city lost power after the storm, and MidAmerican Energy reported thousands of customers out at once. Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation for Buena Vista County and three other counties that same day, activating state aid programs that could provide up to $7,000 for eligible households, and the proclamation expired May 18, 2025. The Buena Vista County Historical Museum also took heavy damage, with losses eventually estimated at about $80,000.

A year later, North Lake Avenue is no longer a cleanup scene. It is a corridor where a manufacturer is rebuilding in place, a dialysis clinic has reopened, and one of Storm Lake’s most visible storm scars is giving way to new walls, new roofs and a steadier return to daily business.