tornadoes minnesota
At least one powerful tornado damaged farms, left one person dead and two others injured in western Minnesota as severe storms moved across parts of the Midwest, authorities said.

A 30-year-old man was killed near Dalton when a twister destroyed a large garage in which he was working Wednesday evening, said Otter Tail County Sheriff's Lt. Keith Van Dyke.

Two others suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to a hospital, Van Dyke said. He did not know where or how the two were injured.

At least three farmsteads were hit, and one of those farmhouses was flattened, said meteorologist Vince Godon with the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, N.D.

There were reports of other tornadoes and weather service ground crews were working to confirm that, meteorologist Daniel Robinson said Thursday.


"Having eyes on the ground, the survey teams can look for indicators of other possible touchdowns," Robinson said.

The tornado that caused the fatality is believed to be at least in the EF-3 category, with winds of 136-165 mph, the weather service said. It left a 6- to 9-mile trail of damage as it roared northeast.

Otter Tail County sheriff's office spokesperson Shannon Terry said earlier her department was told that two tornadoes touched down near Dalton between 5:10 and 5:30 p.m.


A tornado crossed Interstate 94 but no vehicles were affected, according to the weather service. Other possible tornado activity was reported Wednesday in Colorado as well as parts of Nebraska and Illinois.

Tom Grover, the mayor of nearby Ashby in Grant County, who is also a member of the city's Fire Department, said when he got a call to report in shortly after 5 p.m. he clearly saw the tornado just a few miles away.

"It was a very large tornado and it was on the ground and it was coming right towards Ashby, but about a mile-and-a-half or 2 miles out it switched and went a little bit to the northeast and the four houses that were hit, the farm sites that were hit, there were all within a cluster of probably a couple of miles," Grover said.

He said the tornado was on and off the ground for several minutes and that three of the four homes were destroyed.


Grant County posted on its Facebook page Wednesday night that no damage to county properties had been reported, and pointed all residents' questions about the tornado to the Otter Tail County dispatch center.

"Grant County extends our prayers and thoughts to our neighbors to the north in Otter Tail County," the post said. "The devastating tornado that touched down and caused destruction is something some will never forget. Severe weather can be unpredictable and come without warning."