Climate change, industry, parks, air and water quality are issues that are debated in congress, compete for funding and enpassion many Minnesotans.
March 31, 1998 - Dennis Gimmestad, member of the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office, comments on tornado damage to historic buildings in St. Peter.
March 31, 1998 - MPR’s Perry Finelli interviews Greg Aune, choral director at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, as he describes the scene after tornado hit the town. Like other parts of town, Gustavus Adolphus College was severely damaged, including the chapel...which lost its 137-foot spire. Aune says the campus has been transformed.
April 1, 1998 - Southern Minnesota extension officials say Sunday's tornadoes damaged more than 200 farms. Dairy farmers have been especially hard hit. In Brown County dairy farmers are scrambling to care for their cows, which must be milked twice a day. With barns destroyed and electricity out, some are selling their herds. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports: Brown County extension director Wayne Schoper says 140 farms were damaged as the tornado cut a 30 mile long path through the southern part of the county. The storm is causing the most immediate hardship for dairy farmers. If cows are not milked regularly their udders' may get infected, possibly ending their milk producing days for good. Schoper says some farmers h
April 2, 1998 - MPR’s Cara Hetland reports that the tornadoes in Comfrey and St. Peter has brought memories back for the residents of Chandler in southwest Minnesota. A tornado in 1992 wiped out nearly all of the town. They have rebuilt their town and gone one with their lives but the memories and emotions are still strong.
April 3, 1998 - The National Weather service issued a preliminary report indicating extraordinarily wide and long-running tornados were responsible for the damage in Comfrey, Le Center, and St. Peter on March 29, 1998. The review identified a total of seven seperate tornadoes which hit Brown, Nicollet, Le Sueur, Rice, and Dakota counties. Two, or possibly three, of the tornadoes were especially destructive "multiple vortex" tornadoes.
April 6, 1998 - Midday presents a broadcast of Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens speaking to St. Peter residents at First Lutheran Church. Owens empathizes with St. Peter’s tornado disaster by reflecting on the devastating flooding that impacted Grand Forks the prior year. Program then turns to Vincent Harding speech on Martin Luther King, presented as part of coverage on 30th anniversary of King’s assassination, and his legacy.
April 6, 1998 - The mayor who led Grand Forks through last years flooding offered sympathy and encouragement to tornado victims in St. Peter Sunday. Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Losure reports. and vividly described the disaster that struck HER community almost year ago, when the dikes protecting GRand Forks began to give way.
April 6, 1998 - Gustavus Adolphus College alumni and students spent the weekend cleaning up the destruction from last week's tornado. The tornado damaged many of the college's buildings and has forced an extension of the college's spring break. But it didn't keep people from breaking out the "gustie spirit" to help the college begin the process of recovery. Minnesota Public Radio's Lynette Nyman has this report. 31:00 ambience of crowd
April 6, 1998 - Minnesota's House of Representatives has approved more than $27 million dollars worth of tornado relief aid to communities in south central counties. Minnesota Public Radio's Eric Jansen reports from the state capitol: Representatives acted swiftly and unanimously today in appropriating $27.6 million to help communities in south central Minnesota rebuild from tornado damage sustained 8 days ago. $8 million of that aid package will qualify five counties to draw approximately $24 million more from the federal government. St. Peter Representative Ruth Johnson says that although residents are carrying on the Minnesota tradition of doing what needs to be done, there is a lot of work ahead:
April 7, 1998 - MPR's Mary Losure talked to kids at an afterschool daycare program for a child's eye view of the severe storm and tornado that hit St. Peter, Minnesota.