Tornadoes damage farm sites
Reports of severe weather kept deputies, spotters busy on Wednesday eveningBy KURT NESBITT Journal Staff Writer
POSTED: June 12, 2008
Article Photos
Starting at 7:20 p.m., reports of funnel clouds and small tornadoes came into the Brown County Sheriff’s Office.
Dispatcher Carl Rolloff said he handled six or more reports of tornadoes touching down throughout Brown County.
According to Rolloff, storms damaged a cattle barn near Springfield and a turkey barn north of Sleepy Eye. Power lines were reported down in the same areas. No injuries were reported.
Brown County Rural Electric Association superintendent Mike Heidemann said a line by the Leavenworth area was down. The outage affected nine people, he said.
Reports came in as early as 7:12 p.m., when the Brown County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a tornado touchdown one mile south of Sanborn, which is near Brown County’s western border.
Tornado sirens were sounded in Springfield, Sleepy Eye, Cobden, Evan and Comfrey shortly thereafter.
A tornado was reported on the ground west of Leavenworth at 7:27 p.m. Another tornado was reported about one to two miles west of Sleepy Eye at the same time.
Ted Anderson in Burnstown Township reported a cattle barn was blown down. Power was also out.
There was extensive damage to outbuildings but no people or livestock were injured at Anderson’s farm about six miles east of Springfield in Brown County.
Anderson said he, his wife, three children and house were fine — as well as their 290 head of cattle — but several buildings on his farm sustained major damage around 7:30 p.m.
Power lines to his cattle operation were down, and his cattle were up to their knees in the muddy mess. Neighbors who rushed to the farm put down hay to give the animals better footing.
Anderson said the storm lasted just a couple seconds. He said he stepped outside and saw a tree go down, but it was raining so hard he couldn’t see much else. He retreated back inside. When he came out again, he said, he was shocked by the amount of damage.
Dozens of neighbors soon showed up with Bobcat loaders and chain saws to help clear away the downed trees.
Elsewhere, deputies reported numerous wall clouds and funnel clouds, some which dipped down and then rose up again.
The report of the turkey barn north of Sleepy Eye that was destroyed came in shortly after 7:30 p.m. Large amounts of debris from the barn were found in roadside ditches near the location of the barn.
Dan Christensen said he was in the driveway of his farm place near 285th Avenue when he saw the tornado crossing his property.
“I saw it coming across the field,” Christensen said. “I was coming up the driveway. I made sure the kids were in the house and they were in the basement and when we came up, we saw trees spinning. I’ve never seen that before.”
The tornado demolished one of four turkey barns on Christensen’s property that were being used as storage for vehicles his sons were working on. He said he stopped raising turkeys six years ago. The tornado also sucked the windows out of Christensen’s shop and pulled some shingles off his house.
Structural damage was reported to several buildings at the Andrew Lochner farm place in the same area. Lochner said his machine shed was totaled and the doors of his barn were pushed in.
Fifty to 100 feet away, Lochner’s house and garage were untouched.
‘We’re very lucky no one got hurt,” said Lochner, a Brown County commissioner. “Buildings can be replaced.”
The Cottonwood County Sheriff’s Office earlier reported a tornado that touched down in Germantown Township, which is in the northern end of the county, at 6:45 p.m. The tornado was on the ground for approximately one minute and went two miles. Damage was limited to trees. No structure damage or injuries were reported.
A funnel cloud was spotted near the western Nicollet County village of St. George, which is 10 miles northwest of New Ulm, but the funnel cloud did not touch down.
Sibley County sheriff’s deputies reported cloud rotations but no touchdowns and no damage.
Watonwan County had hail and a funnel cloud was spotted near St. James but that cloud did not touch down.
Renville County deputies also reported cloud rotations and a wall cloud sighting but did not have any confirmed touchdowns.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.
