ENDERLIN, N.D. — A powerful derecho brought tornadoes and 100+ mph wind gusts across North Dakota and western Minnesota Friday night into Saturday morning, leaving at least three dead and a trail of damage and power outages.
What Is A Derecho?
Three people were killed when a tornado swept through the rural town of Enderlin, North Dakota, according to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies received word that a home suffered significant damage from a tornado strike around 11:40 p.m. Friday. As emergency responders arrived at the scene, storm chasers notified them that they had found two people dead inside the home. Enderlin firefighters found the tornado had left a third person dead at another location.
Another tornado was observed near Eckelson and Urbana. The supercell stayed north of Interstate 94, but some damage was reported by storm chasers.
In addition, the squall line brought wind gusts well over hurricane-force strength. The NWS says a private weather station near Luverne, North Dakota clocked a gust of 111 mph around 12:45 a.m. Saturday and gusts reached 80-90 mph for more than an hour in Jamestown.
Farther east as the storm crossed into Minnesota, the airport in Bemidji recorded a gust of 106 mph. An emergency manager there reported extensive damage from falling and uprooted trees on roofs and cars with people trapped.
“There is extensive damage around the Bemidji area and much of southern Beltrami County,” emergency managers wrote on Facebook. “Please do not travel unless it is an emergency. Many roads are blocked and there are a ton of power lines down. Unfortunately there is significant structure damage as well. We are responding to many gas leaks.”
Torrential rain resulted in flash flooding downtown Bemidji with vehicles becoming stalled, said Beltrami County emergency management spokesperson Christopher Muller. “Additional damage was reported in southeastern Beltrami County with thousands of trees blocking roadways.”
However, no injuries have been reported, Muller said.
Over 80% of the county was without power at 8:30 a.m. CT, according to FindEnergy.com.
“Residents should plan for long-term power outages as significant infrastructure damage has occurred,” Muller said.
Overall, data from FindEnergy.com indicated that over 57,000 customers were without electricity in Minnesota at the peak of the outages, with another 30,000 people lost power in North Dakota.
Original article source: Deadly derecho leaves trail of damage as tornadoes, 100+ mph winds sweep across Northern Plains
