MPR’s Marisa Helms reports from Buffalo Lake, a small town about 75 miles southwest of the Twin Cities, where an F2 tornado struck the previous night. Helms speaks with residents as they start picking up the pieces from extensive damage left behind.
Severe thunderstorms on June 24, 2003, produced tornadoes in central Minnesota. Of the 15 tornadoes reported, an F2 was the strongest and caused the most damage in Buffalo Lake. Other weather elements across the state included two-inch hail in Rock County and wind gusts of 58 miles per hour at the Minneapolis International Airport. Minnesota was comparativley fortunate; 67 tornadoes touched down in South Dakota that same day, tying a national record.
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MARISA HELMS: By about 11 o'clock, except for the sounds of generators and incoming emergency trucks, the town of Buffalo Lake was eerily dark and quiet. The power was out. It was difficult to see even a few feet ahead, just silhouettes of gnarled debris and downed utility poles. Town Police Chief Greg Gowan describes what he saw earlier in the evening.
GREG GOWAN: I ran over here to the fire hall. And as I crossed Main Street, I can look South on Main Street, and I saw right out of the movie Twister this massive pitch-black, perfect funnel shape South of town. And I mean, it was as black as oil. I've never seen something so black. I think I've seen it on newscasts many times, but until you stand there and look at one, you don't realize just how outrageous it looks.
MARISA HELMS: As the very wide, slow moving tornado headed closer to town, Gowan says he and others directed residents into the community center bathrooms for safety.
GREG GOWAN: When I came out of that room and looked around and saw the ripped off roofs and all the power lines down, I just thought, my God, how many body bags am I going to need for this? With the damage I saw, it's like people can't live through that. You can't live through that kind of heavy, heavy damage. And so I'm absolutely amazed and very excited and happy that no one's been seriously injured or dead. And this is buoyed my spirits.
MARISA HELMS: Gowan said as far as he knew, injuries were minor, mostly related to flying objects. He says almost every car window on Main Street was blown out and virtually every power line and telephone pole went down. The grain elevator company building was leveled, and the North side of the roof of Zion Lutheran Church is gone. Gowan said he felt grateful to have so much help from the surrounding community. Fire and ambulance trucks arrived through the night with volunteers.
A communications truck came. The Red Cross was there. Men even showed up with a flatbed full of portable toilets. Governor Pawlenty has dispatched the National Guard to help with cleanup and crowd control. Just over 750 people live in Buffalo Lake, which is about 70 miles West of Minneapolis. Resident Joyce Schafer stood close to her neighbor at the entrance to the fire hall, which has turned into the disaster command center. Schafer was shaken up and teary-eyed, but in good spirits.
JOYCE SCHAFER: My house is all right. I have some damage on the shingles. The trees are all gone. I can't see the west side of my house. I might have damage there, I don't know. But we're all alive. That's the main thing. Thank the Lord.
MARISA HELMS: Buffalo Lake has a substantial number of migrant workers who come to work in the surrounding farm fields. After several hours waiting in the elementary school halls with other workers, Valdo Olivarez and his little brother wandered back in the dark toward home. Valdo and his brothers stay in a trailer court in town. As far as they know, there's still no electricity there. But otherwise, there's no damage to their trailer. Valdo says they've been living in Buffalo Lake just two weeks.
VALDO OLIVAREZ: We don't know exactly this town. It's the first time we are here. We are from Texas, so it's the first experience we have with a tornado.
GREG GOWAN: Longtime residents Lila Tauber and Mark Capping also strolled along the sidewalk in the dark, holding hands. They spoke philosophically about the odds of a tornado hitting this speck of a town surrounded by hundreds of acres of farmland.
LILA TAUBER: We're kind of out in the middle of nowhere, so we--
MARK CAPPING: Most of the time it dodges us. But every once in a while in life, you find yourself right in the bull's eye. And it was our turn this time, I guess.
MARISA HELMS: Tauber added, Buffalo Lake's a small, close-knit town where everyone will help each other out to clean up and rebuild. This is Marisa Helms, Minnesota Public Radio.