One of the year's nastiest storms followed a path from Bowman to Pembina on Saturday night and was still going strong Sunday afternoon as it disappeared into Canada.

Dickinson was particularly hard hit, with the National Weather Service recording wind speeds of 84 mph. According to Emergency Manager Gary Kostelecky, the storm hit Dickinson at about 12:30 a.m. Mountain Time and continued for about 25 minutes.

"We got hit pretty hard last night. There were straight winds, coming from the west, from 80 to 90 mph. We expect there was some tornado activity, at least that's the way some areas looked," Kostelecky said. "We had reports of 3-inch hail and a half inch to an inch and a half of rain."

In surveying the town, Kostelecky found extensive damage from the wind and hail. A carnival in the parking lot of Prairie Hills Mall was unable to reopen Sunday because of the extensive damage to equipment.

"They're saying there's at least $500,000 in damage to the carnival," Kostelecky said. "Canopies were ripped off and equipment was found strewn about. They weren't even going to reopen today, just tear down and head down the road to their next stop."

The rest of the community was hard hit as well. Kostelecky had gotten reports and had seen large trees knocked down along with damage to power and cable lines.

He estimated that about 5,000 people in the center of Dickinson went without power for about five hours, until it was restored. The Comfort Inn sign in northeast Dickinson was twisted from its chassis, the emergency manager said.

"The hail fall was sporadic, with some parts of the city hit harder than others," Kostelecky said. "In south Dickinson we had one mobile home with all its windows broken and car outside the mobile home had a hole punched in it."

The community had about a 20-minute advance notice with National Weather Service reports warning of a advancing thunderstorm, but no mention was made of any tornado watches.

In Gladstone, about 10 miles east of Dickinson, there were reports of siding torn from houses and two large doors ripped off a commercial building along with a lot of hail damage across the small community as wind speeds hit 86 mph.

Kostelecky said he expected insurance agents would be busy on Monday as homeowners came in with damage claims. Kostelecky said he hadn't gotten any reports from South Heart or Belfield.

"When it hit, it hit really hard. It was raining so hard I couldn't see 50 feet in front of us," Kostelecky said on Sunday. "I was up until 4 a.m. and they I got started at 8 a.m. this morning to look at the damage."

Meteorologist Jon Chamberlain said the storm kicked off in southeast Montana and moved northwest. After colliding violently with Dickinson, it moved toward Gladstone, Richardton, Garrison and Minot. It didn't exit the state until almost seven hours after it started.

"It moved through Mercer and Oliver counties with Hazen reporting 60 mph winds," Chamberlin said.

In Langdon, winds that topped 90 mph blasted trees and power lines and caused at least one injury early Sunday morning as the storm moved northeast.

The storm struck about 6 a.m., cutting a swath about 20 miles wide, Cavalier County officials said. Grain bins were crushed, leaving scraps of metal in fields. One house lost its roof.

A firefighter at the Walhalla Fire Hall said one man was injured at a Walhalla park after a tree fell on his camper. The man was taken to the Cavalier hospital and transferred to Grand Forks.

"You can't believe it. There are trees maybe 2 feet in diameter at the base that are uprooted. You probably need 8 or 10 yards of earth to fill the hole," Cavalier County emergency manager Steve Morse said Sunday night.

Crews in Langdon were working to clear downed trees and restore power to the town's lift stations, said City Commission President Bonnie Olson.

Duane Otto, the Cavalier County Rural Electric Cooperative manager, said the high winds damaged a 115,000-volt feeder line and knocked out power to about 1,480 customers. Morse said power had been restored to most customers by early Sunday night.

Near Devils Lake, tornadoes were reported to have set down in Benson and Ramsey county. "There were reports of trees four to five feet in diameter being torn down," Chamberlain said. "In terms of damaging winds and hail, this is the worst I've seen this year."

(The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@bismarcktribune.com.)