Wadena Tornado

June 17, 2010 will be a date none of us will soon forget in this area.  Wadena was devastated by a tornado and my father-in-law's business was completely destroyed.   I wasn't aware of how terrible the damage was until I saw pictures, a sampling of which I am posting here. 

The saving grace is no one was killed in Wadena, although two people in Almora were killed, as was a man in Mentor.

Thanks to my cousin Tammy, my sister-in-law Sara and my nephew Kevin for letting me "borrow" these pictures from their Facebook pages (even though they don't know I'm doing this!).  It makes me so sad to see these pictures, but the force of a tornado is truly mind-boggling.

Kevin took this picture at Highway 2 near Mentor, MN.  A man was killed at the Cenex station in town during this tornado.

The next five pictures are from Sara.  This is what used to be my father-in-law's business, Leaf River Ag.

My father-in-law's business, Leaf River Ag.  What looks like crumpled pieces of paper is sheet metal.

This is the safe, which saved everyone's life at Leaf River Ag.  The employees took shelter here, and it is about the only thing left standing.

This is sheet metal wrapped around another building at Leaf River Ag.  I can't imagine overwhelming power this would have taken.

This is a piece of farm equipment from Leaf River Ag impaled into the Wadena High School building.  The two buildings are at least a city block apart.

The next two are from Tammy; more pictures around Wadena.  What you are seeing here is a school bus in the center of the picture laying upside down - it looks like it has rolled over and over and came to a stop next to a semi which is laying on its side.  In the background used to be a building.

That is sheet metal wrapped in some trees.  Notice none of the trees have tops, they've all been snapped off at the same spot.  I believe this is near the fairgrounds in Wadena.

So please say a few prayers for these folks as the clean up begins.  This is a true disaster.