Several tornadoes struck south-central Minnesota as severe storms packing powerful winds and heavy rain left a trail of destruction overnight, the National Weather Service said Friday. However, authorities reported no deaths or significant injuries.
Thursday evening’s tornadoes and strong winds damaged structures, cut power, uprooted trees, closed schools and shut down the municipal airport in Faribault.
The weather service confirmed that four tornadoes struck near Faribault, Granada, Morristown and Lake Elysian/Waterville between approximately 4:30 and 8 p.m.
Suspected tornadoes were also reported near Medford, Northfield and Randolph. By Friday afternoon, the confirmed tornadoes had yet to be classified on the Enhanced Fujita Scale of wind speed.
The hardest-hit area was Rice County, about 40 miles south of the Twin Cities.
“It sure looked like a tornado to me (around Northfield),” Northfield Police Chief Monte Nelson said. “Whether it was straight-line winds or a tornado, it doesn’t really matter, because everything is totaled.”
Nelson, himself, experienced significant damage on his property.
“I lost my barn and half of my grove,” he said. “My neighborhood out east of town is not in good shape.”
A suspected tornado flattened a restored 100-year-old barn just southeast of Northfield that had been a popular venue for pizza nights and weddings.
Red Barn Farm owners Pat and Tammy Winter said on Facebook that they and their animals weren’t injured, but that they are devastated by the financial loss. Red Barn was booked for weddings nearly two years in advance.
“Our hearts are broken, last night’s tornado left our precious Red Barn in pieces,” they wrote while announcing a fundraising appeal on GoFundMe.com.
The municipal airport in Faribault remained closed Friday after sustaining heavy damage. Hangars collapsed on top of planes and several aircraft that had been parked outside were tossed around by the winds.
Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn said about 36 homes sustained damage in Morristown and around a dozen were uninhabitable.
“We’ve had no reports of injuries, which is surprising when you see the wrath that this storm brought on to our county,” Dunn said.
Bill Bongers, who lives between Faribault and Northfield, off Minnesota 3, said 15 pine trees were knocked down in his front yard. He was out in his shop when the storm came through.
“I was holding the door closed as it was coming through. I was in the shop when the overhead door blew in,” Bongers said. “I didn’t have time to get to the house. It came through so fast.”
In Morristown, the damage was heavy. The Rice County sheriff’s office issued a curfew for the town from 10 p.m. Thursday to 6:30 a.m. Friday, asking people to stay in their homes and only allowing residents into the city.
In the Le Sueur County community of Waterville, the winds uprooted or snapped off trees, warped sheds, even stripped the roofs off of some buildings. While some property owners only had a few downed trees, others will have to consult insurance companies and find other places to stay as their damage is assessed.
Damage to Waterville’s power grid was so severe that the city instituted a nighttime curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. in the interest of “safety and security.”
“This could be days without power. Xcel has told us that the infrastructure has been severely damaged,” city officials posted on Waterville’s Facebook page Friday afternoon. “They are working around the clock and recruiting crews from all over to assist. However, many of their contract crews have been dispatched to the Carolinas for the Hurricane Florence recovery.”
Sakatah Lake State Park near Waterville is closed this weekend as crews work to restore power and water service to the park.
Linda Pommeranz and her mother, Marlys Meskan, were thankful no one seemed to be injured from the tornado in Waterville. They, along with family and friends, helped Meskan clear out debris from her decades-old property.
Meskan could remember when the neighborhood north of Cannon Gate Park only had one or two trees when she and her family built their house about 50 years ago. Many trees had sprouted in the area since then, only to be snapped, torn and battered by Thursday’s storm.
“Now it looks sort of like it does when we first moved in,” Meskan said.
The Faribault County town of Easton, about 30 miles south of Mankato, was heavily damaged when the storm hit shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday. That was most symbolized by the toppling of the steeple on the town’s most visible building — the majestic Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church. The 1915 brick church, which had its 133-foot steeple rebuilt a decade ago, was so severely damaged that Masses have been moved to parishes in nearby towns until further notice.
“It’s kind of a landmark. The steeple is all lit up at night,” said Fairbault County Emergency Management Director Lisa Frommie.
No homes were destroyed in Easton, a hamlet of 194, but power was knocked out for about six hours and many streets were blocked by fallen trees, Frommie said.
Elsewhere in the county, Delavan was completely without power Thursday night and the Riverside Town and Country Club — a golf course north of Blue Earth — was hard hit.
“They have a lot of damage out there,” she said. “Trees just fell like dominoes.”
Public schools in Cannon Falls, Northfield, Faribault and Waterville-Elysian-Morristown canceled classes on Friday.
Up to 5 inches of rain fell in some places. The Twin Cities posted a daily rainfall record of 3.28 inches, beating the old mark of 1.82 inches from 1902.
Aside from street flooding and scattered power outages, there were no reports of major damage in the Twin Cities.
Xcel Energy reported that more than 9,000 customers remained without power Friday afternoon in southern Minnesota communities that were hit hardest by the severe weather.
This report includes information from the Associated Press, the Free Press of Mankato and the Northfield News, which is part of Adams Publishing Group, a partner of the Forum News Service.
