Tornadoes roar through Minn.
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tornadoes roar through Minn.*
Updated 8/25/2006 8:54 AM ET
NICOLLET, Minn. (AP) — Tornadoes and hail struck several towns in
southern Minnesota, killing one man, damaging cars and ripping roofs off
at least a dozen homes.
The man who died was trapped in a house near Kasota when a tornado hit
Thursday, said Tom Doherty, chief sheriff's deputy in Le Sueur County.
The most serious property damage was reported in adjacent Nicollet
County, where a tornado bounced through Nicollet, a town of 800, then
moved east toward St. Peter, tearing roofs from farm houses and downing
trees and power lines.
Many of the houses along the highway that links the two towns, 12 miles
apart, were without roofs, and the fronts or sides were ripped off
others, exposing interior rooms. Powerline poles lay alongside the road
and some treetops were sheared off.
Several people were treated at hospitals for broken bones and other
injuries that were not life-threatening.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty planned to tour the storm-damaged area on Friday.
Nicollet County Sheriff Dave Lange said a couple of homes were left
uninhabitable after the tornado "bounced up and down" through town.
Mary Rahm, 22, said she saw the tornado dip from the clouds, bounce back
up, dip down and bounce up again. Then the third time it dipped it hit
the ground. That's when she and her newborn headed for cover.
"I grabbed my son and went under the desk because I don't have a
basement. My 5-week-old son just made it through his first tornado,"
Rahm said. "This is wicked."
The National Weather Service confirmed three tornadoes hit the region
Thursday evening.
An earlier line of thunderstorms dropped hail as large as softballs in
several communities.
In New Prague, police chief Mark Vosejpka said hail smashed the
windshield of a fire truck and dented many vehicles.
Eleven squad cars from the Northfield Police Department were damaged,
and police were borrowing squad cars from the Rice County Sheriff's Office.
In Arizona, heavy rain caused flooding in the Phoenix area, turning
normally dry riverbeds into raging rivers and trapping motorists.
Firefighters waded into the Indian Bend Wash to help two people out of
two cars and walk them out of the swift knee-deep water.
Phoenix firefighters rescued a woman who drove through a flooded
intersection and became trapped. Emergency personnel in other
jurisdictions also reported calls to pull people from stranded vehicles.