Officials counting up damage from last week's storms

Federal, state and county officials are touring Minnesota towns and farms hit by last week's tornadoes, hoping to have a final damage tally of last week's tornadoes by the end of the week.

FEMA's Gay Ruby has been looking at damage in Freeborn County. She says the final tally will include things like buildings destroyed or damaged, and the number of people displaced.

"What we're doing this week is gathering figures so that we can give the governor an accurate picture of how much damage has occured," said Ruby, "so that the state and local governments can take a look and see if they can handle it, or if they need to go to the president and ask for a federal disaster declaration."

Ruby says the good news is that tornado victims are getting plenty of help.

"Most of the places we stopped would have between six and 12 people assisting. People are pretty upbeat," she said. "There've been a few who are quite emotional, which is to be expected. But for the most part, people are in good moods because they're getting a lot of assistance and support."

Ruby says the Red Cross is delivering meals to the cleanup crews.

The damage assessment teams plan to visit seven Minnesota counties: Faribault, Freeborn, Olmsted and Steele in the southern part of the state, plus Wadena, Otter Tail and Polk in the northwest.