Transcripts

SPEAKER 1: At about 10:45 this morning, residents of the Western Twin Cities communities of Greenwood, Deephaven, Excelsior, and a couple of other surrounding communities saw large black clouds rolling in from the West. Suddenly, the winds picked up and rain started, and all of a sudden things began happening. Some trees were toppled, fences were blown over, flagpoles were bent at the base. And in all, there was extensive property damage to some homes with the fences and windows blown out, some doors blown in as well.

So far, only one fatality reported as a result of a downed power line. A young man stepped on a downed power line and was electrocuted. That is the only fatality reported by Hennepin County Emergency services.

Eyewitness reports of a tornado are rare. There are reports of people who heard a tornado in the area that roar or locomotive-like sound that many have attributed to the sound of a tornado. I have seen no evidence of buildings toppled or roofs ripped off. Altogether, damage to buildings and outbuildings does not seem to be very heavy at all.

SPEAKER 2: Is the damage pretty well general in that area, or does it tend to be specific from one block to another block with some areas unaffected?

SPEAKER 1: In some ways the damage is general. You can see many smaller tree limbs and branches lying across roadways. But in another sense, it's quite specific because in only pockets of Greenwood and Excelsior and Deephaven will you see large trees down. In some of the open areas, large trees were toppled, but then you can drive [? Fourways ?] and not see any trees toppled.

A number of boats and marinas on Lake Minnetonka were overturned. A number of boats in the display yards of boat sales offices were overturned as well. The masts snapped off, and the boat hulls themselves overturned from their wooden bases. So there was that kind of damage. In other areas, it doesn't look as though there was anything but a very heavy rainfall.

The activity was over in perhaps 15 to 20 minutes, and then there was a heavy downpour of rain so that there was some local flooding. The city crews responded quickly, although the first to respond were the fire crews. Some of the trees in these communities had been struck by lightning. There were fires reported in the trees themselves. The crews went to put out those fires.

Downed lines were reported and, in fact, Northern states power company reported service out to pockets of areas in these communities, perhaps as many as 5,000 people affected. Phone service was not out, generally, because of the independent power source of Bell Telephone. No emergency service to hospitals, police, or fire departments was disrupted because of their auxiliary power supplies.

SPEAKER 2: Did anyone get any feeling for how long the tornado was actually on the ground?

SPEAKER 1: We have not talked with anyone who saw the tornado, and so we have not been able to get any idea of whether or not a tornado touched down. If it did touch down, how long it was on the ground. The assistant fire chief in Excelsior, Bruce Bunting, says that as far as he was concerned, it was a big storm, that is to say, just straight line winds that caused the damage. And the straight line winds so far have been reported by a number of people.