MPR’s William Wilcoxen reports from Hugo, where a severe storm struck the city on May 25th. Wilcoxen interviews residents on what they saw and experienced as intense wind and hail battered their homes.
On May 25, 2008, supercell thunderstorms produced large hail and tornadoes from the northern Twin Cities metro area to western Wisconsin. Four tornadoes touched down in Minnesota. The strongest tornado was an EF-3 which hit Hugo, Minnesota. The EF-3 tornado packed winds up to 165 mph, destroyed trees, houses, barns, and silos. Two-year-old Nathanial Prindle was killed, and nine others were injured.
Transcripts
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WILLIAM WILCOXEN: The last bits of rain were still falling on Hugo when the evening sun emerged, low in the Western sky, producing a rainbow that shimmered above the town as hundreds of residents evacuated their devastated neighborhoods. People who live in the Water's Edge and Creekview preserve developments relocated to Oneka Elementary School, where they gathered in clusters, hugging and sharing stories.
Steve Johnson was among
STEVE JOHNSON: You see a lot of neighbors over here, and the first question you ask is, is your house still standing? And a lot of times, the answer is no. But most people have found alternate housing and staying with relatives and friends.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: Johnson says when he heard emergency sirens and saw the storm approaching as a wall of water, he gathered his family and climbed under the kitchen table. They emerged with their house still standing, but ventured outside to find neighbors who were less fortunate.
STEVE JOHNSON: You could see the path cut through the neighborhood, and there were many driveways that didn't have a house left. It had been blown 300 or 400 feet behind the house.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: The severe weather came in two waves, which residents say were about 20 minutes apart. Fernando Flores says it was the first storm that caused the most wind damage, and after it passed, residents ventured out.
FERNANDO FLORES: We went outside. We looked for houses, to help neighbors out, and then all of a sudden we start seeing this sheet of green coming behind us. And so I got the kids and my wife back in the house, and that's when all the hail came. But by that time, there wasn't any more wind. It was just a lot of hail.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: Hailstones, some the size of golf balls, still littered the area hours after the storm. The afternoon had been warm, even pleasant, before the storm arrived. Rachel Otton, cradling an infant on a bench outside Oneka School, explains she was in Hugo visiting her parents, and the family had been at a swimming pool. When they heard the sirens, they came inside and turned on the news.
RACHEL OTTON: When we heard that it hit Lino Lakes and it was just about to hit Hugo and we started seeing siding come flying by, so we ran into the closet and then my parents' house-- that's where we were at-- six of the houses got completely demolished behind them to the ground, and my husband and my father ran out and tried to save people under the debris.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: There was a consensus among the storm victims that help was speedy and abundant and came from both emergency personnel and neighbors. Bruce Mikres says between the storms, he helped clear a garage door off his neighbor's car.
BRUCE MIKRES: There was people here right away. I was amazed how fast the guys were here. There was people, police, everybody where all the devastation was, anyway. And people were all helping everybody. That's the way the neighborhood is supposed to work, you know.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: City officials say 250 emergency personnel from 10 jurisdictions came to Hugo, a community of 12,000. Some of those helping to organize the response had their own harrowing tales, particularly public works director Chris Petrie. Petrie was at work in City Hall not long after his family had huddled in the basement listening to the tornado destroy their home.
CHRIS PETRIE: The first thing that happened was all the windows on the back of the house blew in. And then you could just see the floor right above us, start to lift and just hear tearing and ripping and glass breaking and everything else when it was right over the top of us. It seemed like forever, it lasted-- but it was probably 30 seconds or something like that it lasted.
WILLIAM WILCOXEN: Petrie described the scene in Hugo after the storm as surreal, but he says his wife and daughter and the family dog are all safe, so he feels he needs to put his personal feelings on hold for the time being, to help the city he works for begin the task of cleaning up and rebuilding after the tornado. William Wilcoxen, Minnesota Public Radio News, Hugo.