Tornadoes damage homes in Litchfield, Watkins
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In central Minnesota, residents of Litchfield and Watkins are cleaning up after a late afternoon tornado on Monday damaged homes and other buildings in those communities.
Meeker County Sheriff Brian Cruze said the tornado first hit Litchfield, skirting the town's northwest side. It damaged some trailer homes there and destroyed at least two other homes.
Cruze said law enforcement officers saw the twister go back up into the air before it came down again 16 miles to the north in Watkins.
Holly Schumacher and Dan Sargent were at Gordie's Bar on Central Avenue when they heard the weather sirens.
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"I was sitting at the bar and all of the sudden I saw the wind start. And we ran into the basement, and as I was going into the basement I looked out the window and saw a piece of siding fly by the window," Schumacher said. "So I booked it downstairs."
"It wasn't really a loud noise or anything. It was super windy for about two minutes and then it was completely gone," Sargent said.
The tornado that struck Litchfield appears to have returned to Earth right on top of the corrugated steel building housing Kramer Electric, a contracting business.
The neighboring farm fields show no evidence of damage. But the building's back end is collapsed into a pile of crumpled sheet metal and splintered wooden trusses. A piece of the wall is wrapped around a utility pole. Another is lodged in a tree across the street at St. Anthony's cemetery.
White insulation blown out of the walls sticks to the wet parking lot like snow. With the sun setting and heavy gray clouds still in the sky, Kramer's employees, family and friends pitched in to clean up. Some cleared the debris with heavy equipment and by hand. Others wheeled away file cabinets and tools from the section of the building that's still partly standing.
Melissa Knisley of nearby Paynesville was among the dozens of people there. She was driving home with a co-worker when the tornado hit.
"We were in the storm and came through town and stopped to help," she said.
Owner Flavian Kramer,who has insurance, said his employees were not injured. He was not in the building when the storm hit.
"I went home for awhile and as soon as it passed I headed back into town and this is what I came upon," he said.
The damage to Kramer's property shows both the immense power of tornadoes and the precision of their destruction. Twenty paces behind the demolished building is an array of solar panels. Not one has a scratch. Kramer said that's especially remarkable because the panels sit freely on a concrete pad.
"That thing's not attached. It's just a floating system not anchored at all."
The tornado also damaged homes along with a nursing home in Watkins that had to be evacuated. The Red Cross said it's helping 50 people find food, clothing and a place to stay. But reported injuries in the town so far are minor.
Flash flooding threatens much of the region Tuesday, from the Brainerd Lakes area to northwestern Wisconsin.
In Stearns County, emergency manager Erin Hausauer said the city of Sartell had to close off some overflowing streets.
"They have the ongoing flooding issues, but we did experience them widespread throughout the county all evening."
Because the storm happened in the late afternoon, Hausauer said damage assessment in Stearns County will begin in earnest Tuesday.
