Mcnaney

March 29, 1998, a towering, monster of a tornado detroyed the town of Comfrey Minnesota before plowing into St. Peter.

Ten years later, my mind's-eye still see the faces of shocked people, I can almost feel the damp-air and the smell of leaking gas as Photographer Russ Brown and I walked thru the devasted streets of Comfrey.

It was dark, the town had been evacuated and the winds from behind the twister wwere still blowing (EDITOR'S NOTE: Watch some of the old reports in the video viewer on the right side of the page).

Dave Dahl had feared such a tornado outbreak was possible that Sunday. I remember getting a call in my kithcen at 7:30 a.m. -  my afternoon shoot had been cancelled, but I was being sent to Southern Minnesota, just to wait for the storms to roll in. And they did.

In as much as I have seen devastation all across this country first-hand while on assignment, what I saw in Comfrey and St. Peter still sits among the worst thing I have ever seen.

But ten years later, I still treasure the words of the people in those towns, the volunteers who came to help them, and the profound promise that the towns would rebuild and lives would be put back in place. Today the towns look great.

"Once a beatiful, beautiful campus...it will be again." -woman told me while picking up pieces of the debris on the Gustavus campus. She was so right.

"Faith is the rock that will keep us going"- a man fighting back tears promised in a country cburch outside Comfrey, and it has.

Comfrey's motto-"Remembering yesterday, appreciating today, working for tomorrow."- it is motto all of us can follow.

We have linked some stories from 10 years back in the video viewer on the right, not to open old wounds, but to show the determination of the people. 

I have seen often, tragedy destroys buildings, but not towns....the bounds which hold small towns together are rooted in the people themselves.