March 31, 1998 - MPR’s Lynette Nyman provides an on-location report of the tornadoes that destroyed large parts of St. Peter and Comfrey.
March 31, 1998 - MPR’s Mark Steil provides an on-location report detailing the aftermath of tornados that devastated Comfrey, Minnesota.
March 31, 1998 - MPR’s Eicthen takes a listener call who describes a harrowing in-person experience of the tornado that struck the town of Comfrey, Minnesota.
March 31, 1998 - MPR’s Art Hughes provides an update on status in St. Peter, two days after Minnesota town was hit by devastating tornados.
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.