STORM DAMAGE — Strong winds from Wednesday night’s storm uprooted two trees in John Heymann’s home along Summit Avenue in New Ulm. As the rain pelted the sides of homes in town, branches and loose debris flew in the air. (Photo by Steve Kohls)

A strong wind and rain storm, carrying some hail, swept through southwestern Minnesota late Wednesday night.

The storm hit New Ulm at 10 p.m., just when the severe thunderstorm warning put out at mid-afternoon had expired.

Even though later than predicted, the storm carried winds up to 40 miles an hour, blowing leaves and limbs off trees. Some entire trees toppled.

The storm carried 1.27 inches of rain to New Ulm.

A total of 2.25 inches fell at St. George with rainfall of similar amounts throughout the area. Hail was reported at St. George and also in the Sleepy Eye area.

In New Ulm, one tree fell partly across Flandrau Lane from a yard.

A tree fell from the John Heymann Jr. lawn at 710 Summit, across the driveway of his neighbor to the south.

A tree fell on Franklin just south of 10th S.

The wind-driven rain, blowing ripe apples off trees, came into some basements and seeped around air conditioning units.

It was the first heavy rain of September.

REPORTS from the area included:

-St. Peter,about one inch of rain, no damage reported.

-Redwood Falls, .74 inch of rain, some small hail.

– Gaylord, some rain but no measurement.

– Olivia, about 4 inch of rain, lights out in Olivia for an hour around 10:30 p.m.

-St. James, about 1.1 inch of rain, no damage.

-Glencoe, just a sprinkle of rain.

At Springfield the tornado whistle blew at 10 p.m. but this morning there were no reports of any tornado damage. It is not known who reported the tornado. Rainfall was measured at 98 of an inch.

Rainfall at Fairfax totaled .8 of an inch.

New Ulm Daily Journal

Sept 11, 1975