Mainstreet Radio’s Mark Steil reports on tornado that struck Granite Falls, Minnesota. Steil gets firsthand accounts of the storm. The tornado is the latest disaster for a city which has seen floods and job losses in the last few years.
13 tornadoes were confirmed in Minnesota on July 25, 2000. The most devastating traveled nine miles through parts of Yellow Medicine County and hit portions of Granite Falls, causing destruction of 41 houses, 300 damaged buildings, and one fatality. The damage in Granite Falls was caused by F2 and F3 winds speeds, with a tornado being classified a minimal F4 based on the twisted wreckage of an overturned railroad car.
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MARK STEIL: With warning sirens sounding, Granite Falls residents watched a tornado form above them as they headed for basements and other shelters. At first, there was only the invisible whirlwind, outlined by a rotating border of paper, shingles, and other debris. Gradually, white clouds filled the vortex, forming a classic tornado funnel. Within minutes, the roaring wind destroyed Gene Steinbach's home.
GENE STEINBACH: It's gone. It's just-- it's just not there anymore. The basement was full of debris from upstairs. It fell in, and we had to dig some of that out of the stairwell to get up. And the top story is gone.
MARK STEIL: When Steinbach climbed out of the wreckage, he saw others had suffered the same fate.
GENE STEINBACH: Yeah, the neighbor to the south of us, his garage is gone. The neighbor right behind us, to the east, his rear roof is gone. The next two, three houses down, the roofs and windows are gone in most of them.
MARK STEIL: Emergency crews moved in quickly after the storm, conducting a house-to-house search. Officials set up a command post at the town's community college. Rescue vehicles, police cars, and supply trucks moved in. Duane Hoeschen of the State Emergency Management Office came up with this initial damage assessment.
DUANE HOESCHEN: What we estimate is about 40 square blocks of damage. A very, very rough. estimate is of 300 to 350 homes. We have some businesses involved.
SPEAKER: Nobody can go in there tonight. We'll decide by 9:00 tomorrow morning when they can go in and how they can go in. But until then, nobody can go in.
MARK STEIL: Police sealed off the damaged area, and National Guard troops were brought in to patrol the streets. The only fatality was a man, officials found buried under debris near his home. Most of the injuries caused by the tornado are said to be minor. One of the hardest hit businesses was Project Turnabout, a chemical and gambling-addiction counseling center. Mike Johnson of Staples was there for treatment when the tornado hit.
MIKE JOHNSON: The Administrator's Building went down. I mean, it was demolished, and 16 guys got out of there alive. Everything was on top of them. But it's just metal twisted every place, cars flipped upside down. And it was something that I never want to go through again. It's my first one. It was scary. We were praying.
MARK STEIL: The tornado is Granite Falls' second natural disaster in three years. The 1997 Minnesota River Flood damaged nearly 100 homes. Bad economic news arrived in the past year as two major employers closed their doors. Granite Falls Mayor Dave Smiglewski says the town weathered those downturns and can get through the tornado as well.
DAVE SMIGLEWSKI: The response that we've gotten already from our neighboring communities and from folks within town here is pretty overwhelming as how much they want to help and how much they want to be a part of recovery. We have a lot of ability to bounce back. And I think we're going to have to draw on that pretty hard here once again. But I'm confident we can do that.
MARK STEIL: One of the town's proudest moments came earlier this year when a new community center building opened. It symbolized the town's faith in the future, despite turmoil. That faith will be tested again as Granite Falls rebuilds. In the hours after the tornado, the undamaged community center was enlisted in that effort. It became the city's temporary housing shelter. This is Mark Steil, Minnesota Public Radio.