MPR’s Tim Post reports on how residents of central Minnesota spent the day cleaning up and assessing damage from storms that moved across the area on June 11, 2001. Several communities suffered significant damage caused by tornadoes, straight-line winds and hail.
TIM POST: Tornadoes first hit Benson in West Central Minnesota. Several businesses and homes were damaged or destroyed. Flying debris injured seven people sheltering in a ditch. A 12-year-old boy who suffered serious injuries was flown to a Fargo hospital, where this afternoon doctors upgraded his condition from critical to serious.
After the storm left Benson, it cut a path through West Central Minnesota, dropping heavy rain and hail, battering communities with straight line winds of 70, 80, even 90 miles per hour. Litchfield, Grove City, and Spicer were some of the harder hit communities. Crews in Spicer spent the day cleaning up hundreds of downed trees, lying snapped and scattered on city streets.
As residents worked, many wondered what exactly swept through town. Some say they saw funnel clouds in the area and a cloud of swirling debris on Green Lake on the city's west side. But Fire Chief Bob Lindahl says he doubts a tornado hit Spicer.
BOB LINDAHL: It could have been. But the way that it looks like through town here, the way the trees and stuff are laying, it looks more like a straight line wind that actually came through town here.
TIM POST: Whatever came through Spicer took out many of the city's trees. About half of the trees in Spicer city park are uprooted. In residential neighborhoods, the fallen trees smashed windows and broke through roofs.
The storm hit hardest on the south side of Spicer's Green Lake. That's where homeowner Wynn Elliott says, he saw the storm push across the lake, whipping up six foot waves. Elliott headed for cover when the storm came through.
WYNN ELLIOT: So I went in the bathroom and stayed in there and hid out in there until it felt like it was safe to come out. And when I came out, all the trees were gone. They're all in the house, and boats are gone. And it was just a mess.
TIM POST: Just down the beach from Elliott's home, about a half a dozen boats are smashed together, some upside down in the water, among a tangle of docks and boat lifts.
On the west side of the lake, Spicer resident Lionel Sandven came home from work after the storm to find a jungle of downed trees around and on his house.
LIONEL SANDVEN: We do have some damage where a tree hit the house on the corner over there, and I've got a metal carport that got blown up on top of the roof. It's a 12 by 20 carport. It broke the anchor posts off and flipped it up there and got a broken window or a couple broken windows. And we were pretty fortunate, actually.
TIM POST: The storm took out hundreds of power poles across Central Minnesota, leaving Sandven and most Spicer residents without power today.
LIONEL SANDVEN: The line to the house is down. And I don't think anybody in this neighborhood has any power either. So we're just going to run up to my cousin. He's got a generator. So we can hook up to the freezer and get all the food from the fridge in the cooler with ice. One of those things.
TIM POST: Crews were working to restore power to Spicer residents today. City officials say residents on the south side of town may not have power until sometime on Wednesday. Central Minnesotans hoping for a break from severe weather won't see it soon.
Severe storms are in the forecast for tonight. And thunderstorms are expected to pop up through Saturday. Tim Post, Minnesota Public Radio, Spicer.
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