Serious damage in southern Minnesota after ‘unprecedented’ storm

Gracie Stockton

An "unprecedented" December storm caused severe damage across parts of southern Minnesota Wednesday night.

[anvplayer video=”5078083″ station=”998122″]

In the city of Hartland — which has a population of around 300 — residents said the storm wrecked buildings and lifted away the community’s Christmas tree.

"We’re all safe, so that’s good," Hailey Johnson said. "I mean, I haven’t heard any reports of anybody being hurt — just all property damage."

After sending a team out Thursday to survey Hartland, the National Weather Service announced at about 4 p.m. that damage was caused by a tornado, though the strength, path length and width are still being determined. More details are expected soon.

The NWS also said Thursday that there was an EF-0 tornado confirmed in Lewiston, Minnesota.

Storm damage in Stanley, Minnesota on Dec. 15, 2021. [viewer submitted]

"Already there’s been a bunch of community support," Johnson said. "Our town’s usually pretty good about coming together and cleaning up the damage."

Freeborn County Sheriff Kurt Freitag said Thursday evening that the tornado originated in the southwest corner of the county, traveled northeast and east of Alden, then continued on toward Hartland, according to the NWS. He also said that power has not been restored yet in Hartland and Xcel Energy is working to restore it by Friday.

Lillie Briahna said she was about a block away from where the damage hit, in the basement with her family.

"I was just shocked," she said. "It’s December in Minnesota. You don’t expect this to happen."

The Hartland Bank was severely damaged in the storm.

"My dad had called and said the bank was hit and I didn’t really believe him," she said. "So we decided to walk up there and look at it and it was jaw-dropping. That’s my bank — you don’t see that happening."

Briahna said her family wasn’t hurt and that living through a tornado wasn’t an unfamiliar experience for her.

"We had pretty bad tornadoes in 2010 that went through," she said, having lived in the area her whole life, but Wednesday wasn’t the same.

"It was a lot different, especially since it’s December, with the tornado that had just previously hit down South."

Freitag also said that Freeborn Mower Electric has "worked very hard" to replace roughly 40 broken power poles in east Freeborn County; Dairyland Power Cooperative is busy replacing 13 broken poles in the west side.

Cleanup is underway and the Freeborn County Highway Department is expected to help remove large debris from roadways Friday. The area isn’t yet fully safe to walk and drive through, he added.

Xcel Energy said as of 6 p.m. Thursday, crews had managed to restore power to about 91,000 customers in Minnesota; 3,000 in southeastern Minnesota still do not have power. Xcel said that more than 600 contractors and employees are part of the force working to restore power.

Read more about the storm system here.

Meanwhile, regionally, authorities say one person has died as the powerful storm system swept across the Great Plains and Midwest. The Iowa State Patrol says a semitrailer was stuck by high winds and rolled onto its side in eastern Iowa on Wednesday evening, killing the driver.

There were more than 20 tornado reports Wednesday in the Plains states, scattered through eastern Nebraska and Iowa. More than 400,000 homes and businesses were without electricity Thursday morning in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Kansas.