FARGO - The Western Area Power Administration used a helicopter Monday to survey damage from storms that knocked down more than 30 towers, most of them between here and Jamestown. Farmers said promising fields were left in shambles.

"Whatever that weather system was, it was pretty severe," said Brian Morris, the WAPA state manager.

Jim Kaiser, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, said the exact nature of Sunday night's weather system - whether it was a tornado or straight-line winds - was still being assessed and a report was not expected until late Monday or today.

No injuries to people were reported. One family's horse was treated for cuts.

One storm chaser reported a wind gust of 82 mph near McLeod, Kaiser said.

The swath of damage stretched across Cass, Ransom, Sargent and Steele counties. Some farmers reported 100 percent losses.

"It's not pretty," said Cass County Extension Agent John Kringler, who toured the county on Monday.

"From where I'm sitting now, all I can see is sticks six inches high where there used to be soybeans," said Kringler, talking on his cell phone between Ayr and Buffalo.

Morris said he did not expect a final count on damaged towers until today, but he said at least 26 steel towers were destroyed on a line between Jamestown and Fargo. Five wood structures went down on another line between Jamestown and Grand Forks, he said.

No customer outages were reported, Morris said, because WAPA rerouted power from its system.

"We had to make some repairs after a storm a couple of weeks ago, so it's been kind of a rough year already," Morris said.

Morris said damage was reported on the Jamestown to Grand Forks line at 8:45 p.m. Sunday, on the Jamestown to Edgeley line at 10:18, and the Jamestown to Fargo line at 10:22.

Cass County Electric Cooperative reported power outages scattered from Hope to Sheldon. Its crews traced a 54-mile long path of damage through the service area, spanning about 12 miles wide.

Up to 25 percent of acres in the county appear to have crop damage, Kringler said.

"The area that was hit had a very good crop coming," he said. "It's devastating. Most of them will have crop insurance, but of course it will never cover the full impact."

Kringler also reported damage to shops, bins and an old barn that was blown down.

Ransom County Extension Agent Brian Zimprich said it's likely that 25 percent of crops in the county suffered damage. One farmer in Sheldon reported 2½ inches of rain, he said.

"We needed a little of rain to replenish the topsoil moisture. We didn't need that last night," Zimprich said. "The corn was looking great. Where the hail was at, it don't look good anymore."

Teresa Ham, who lives two miles west of Embden, told KFGO radio that hail knocked out windows and toppled large trees in her yard.

"We were out on the porch and we just saw the winds came up, and the hail came real quick. I got the girls in the basement," Ham said.

One of her horses was injured and Ham's parents, Herb and Anita Sommerfeld, rushed the animal to a veterinarian in Casselton. The horse is expected to recover from a cut on the back legs.