The '57 tornado and a piece of advice
"The '57 tornado and a piece of advice"
Here is a letter written to a student, Sean, who was 12 years old at Roosevelt School in 1996, from Marc Wroe, who had gone to school there as a child, and had this experience when he was about 12 years old:
"I was riding home on my bicycle from downtown in June 1957. People were driving by in the opposite direction yelling at me to get home. I thought they were being rude and should let me ride my bike in peace. We lived by the train yards and I was used to the roar of trains, and it seemed a little odd that I could hear them so loud from way up at Broadway and 11th Ave. The trees were so thick then - as they are again now, that coming down 11th Ave., one couldn't see too much except straight ahead. The winds became incredibly strong and I could hardly pedal my bike. The roar was getting louder and the sky was full of small clouds all moving in what seemed many different directions.
"When I got to the corner of 8th Street and 11th Avenue, I think, all of a sudden the biggest tornado that ever hit Fargo appeared right down the avenue and a little off to the left. I could see it coming toward me, but I could tell it wasn't at my house yet. My house was on University and 11th Avenue, so I had 5 blocks to go, and the tornado looked to be just as close to my house from the other side. By now the wind was so strong, I was almost standing still on my bike, and then a wind gust from behind me knocked me down. I still remember looking up and trying to decide if I should run to my house, - the tornado seemed to be moving very slow - but it was getting closer.
"I ran to several houses and banged on doors. No one answered. I ran across the street - to the corner house (N.E. corner of 8th Street and 11th Avenue) and crawled under the porch. There was so much dirt being kicked up in my face that I immediately ran around to the east side and there was a built-in shelter in the design of the house that could not have been better, because the tornado was coming from the southwest, and I was in a niche protected by 3 sides.
"I sat there and watched what seemed like everything in Fargo fly over my head: car hoods, street signs, garbage cans, tires, fences, sections of garages, and thousands of tree branches and even more shingles. It was a fascinating stream of total debris almost covering the whole sky, moving straight east right over my head. I think I was praying the whole time, but I never shut my eyes with all there was to watch.
"All my prayers were answered, because soon it seemed to settle down and then it rained and hailed hard for just a little while and then it was over. I walked out into the street and everything looked like a war zone. My bike was gone and I never saw it again.
"As I started running toward my house, I saw many houses with missing roofs, some with no sides, so you could look at them just like a big doll house. What I remember the best was that giant chimney behind Roosevelt, laying across the whole playground. The closer I got to my house, the worse the damage was, but as it turned out, our house did better than anyone on the block."Everyone spent the whole summer of '57 cleaning up the damage, and that area of Fargo didn't look the same again for years because of all the trees that were gone. There are pictures of that tornado in the entrance to The Forum if you ever want to see what it looked like.
"Anyway, I
learned something very valuable to me during that tornado that I'll share with
you: Sometimes,
when things get real tough and very scary, everyone else is so busy and
concerned with their own situation that they won't even notice you and your
problem. I was looking right at the
tornado, and I couldn't just sit there.
I didn't find the solution to my problem until I quit trying to get help
from others. Some prayers and a lot of
forced determination led me just in time to a spot so safe that I actually
could enjoy the show. (But, I kept the
prayers going just in case.) Sometimes,
that's the only way things are going to work for you.
"I was reminded of a portion of this letter when you began covering the tornado this week. Students wrote to alumni from Roosevelt Elementary School in 1996. It seemed such a sweet thing that this man took time to share his experience with a boy he'd never met. I believe there was an article in 'The Forum' about Marc Wroe a few years ago. He became an artist in the southwest someplace, but died a while back, I think." --- Judy Thompsen, Fargo
Posted by: nws on 6/20/2007 at 11:03 AM | Comments (4) | Permalink
We barely made it down the basement when the terrible roar came
"Upon reading the article in Thursday's paper I noticed the
route did not include College Street. I thought perhaps because of space it was just
not printed. We had some friends drive by our former home at 920 College
St. They called to say there were no ribbons on the trees. Was
this just an error or were you mis informed?
"I was in that house when the storm
began and watched as our neighbors (Johnson) to the south began to drive away in
their car only to stop and back up and run to their home and seeing me in the
doorway yelled to me to come to their house. I did run as fast as I could. We
barely made it down the basement when the terrible roar came and windows broke. When it finally stopped and I looked out their basement window toward my house
I could look through our south main floor window and could see sky. The entire
roof was gone.
"The Johnson home was heavily damaged as well and we had to
carefully make our way up the stairs and outside. My brother Dick and my Mom
had been at a church softball game in Mhd. which had been called because of
coming storm and were on their way home via 10th ave My brother could see the
tornado approaching and made a right hand turn on 10th St. heading north
attempting to out run the funnel. They stopped in front of the Dahm house on
10th Street and ran up to the door which was locked. They knelt down on the porch
which of course was blown to the next house. The Pearson's were in the basement
and heard the moans and eventually got a fire truck to come and Mom and Dick
were dug out. I later found them in St. Lukes.
"My wedding gown and veil were blown away in the storm
so Iborrowed some for my wedding in September 1957. My brother later had
his kidney removed and my Mom lived to be 85 with her injuries. She was in the
hospital for many weeks. Just thought you might like to know about this." --- Soni
Teigen
Posted by: nws on 6/19/2007 at 2:42 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
My grandmother's death was an indirect result of the tornado
"(My family) always felt that my grandmother's death was an
indirect result of the tornado in 1957. My aunt and uncle, Ed and Lucy
Roehrich, lived at 1123 27th St. N., with their adopted daughter. My
grandmother, 68, was staying with another daughter south of Streeter,
N.D. With no phone communication possible, she sat listening to the radio all
day (although Auntie Caroline would sometimes turn it off) the next day.
Grandma heard that a couple with an adopted daughter were killed near the
school and she was so worried that it was Aunt Lucy and family, that she had a
heart attack and died on the 21st. I remember driving to Streeter to the
funeral a few days later and having to follow the stream of National Guard
trucks on the then 2-lane highway all the way to Valley City. Boy, were we
happy when they turned off. Thought we'd never make it to the funeral on
time.
My aunt and uncle's home was spared, thank god, but Elias's little
shack on 27th Street had the corner torn out of it and the garage destroyed and the
top torn off of his 1927 Buick!
His parents were staying there and somehow got
out on time and eventually made their way to Dilworth via the kindness of
strangers. Elias and his sister spent the whole evening going from hospital
to hospital, funeral home to funeral home before going back to Dilworth and
there they were. Elias said this morning that was the worst day of his life." ---Marilyn Hoffart
Posted by: nws on 6/19/2007 at 11:47 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
NWA informed us...the plane might not land in Fargo
My husband Paul and I met while teaching for the USAF in Germany and decided to be married at the Spangdahlem AF Base Chapel in Germany. My family lived in TRF, MN and Paul's family lived in Arlington, Washington State. We planned to return to the US in the summer to meet our respective families with Minnesota the first stop.
We were flying into Fargo and my parents Roy and Minnie Randorf were driving from TRF to meet us. NWA informed us in MPLS. the plane might not land in Fargo due to the tornado there. We did land and they unloaded our luggage with flashlights. The terminal had no lights, no telephone service and where were Birdell's parents.
Paul was standing outside the terminal when a police car drove up with its red lights flashing. A lady rolled down the window and asked my husband if he were Paul. The lady was my mother. Paul loves to tell the story of how he met his mother-in-law. They had never met Paul so she and my dad came in a police car complete with red lights flashing.
They had come to Fargo and couldn't get to the airport, so they went to the police station. A very helpful policeman said that he was going out to the airport and they could ride with him. As they were driving out to the airport they heard that a plane had landed.
The four of us stayed at the airport until a very nice air traffic controller got off duty and he gave us a ride into Fargo. In all of the excitement my folks couldn't remember exactly where they had parked their car. We found it and took off for TRF where we arrived about 5:00 A.M. and woke Roz's dad who didn't know anything about a tornado in Fargo.
We celebrated out 50th Anniversary in Tacoma, WA in April and Paul included this story in his speech about meeting my family.
This is quite long but hope you enjoyed our memory.
Sincerely, Paul and Birdell Wangsmo
Posted by: nws on 6/18/2007 at 5:20 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
She was unaware of the tornado
"Some of
this is after the fact recollections from my mother. Our family home was
located at
"Dad worked for the Great Northern
Railroad and so he was out of town. Deke was out with friends playing
Baseball. Sam and I were playing outside till started to rain then came
inside the house. Our house lost some shingles is all I recall hearing
mom & Dad had said. I recall walking through damaged neighborhood &
seeing the destruction. So as a 3 year old I donot where it was but I recall it
was such destruction." --- Roger Wimpfheimer, Power, Idaho
Posted by: nws on 6/14/2007 at 4:28 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
The wind was howling so loud it sounded like a freight train
"In
1957, when I was 7 years old, I lived in
"All of a sudden
the lady from downstairs, ran up the back stairway and yelled for us to get to
the basement fast because there was a tornado coming. I remember all of us running
down the stairs as fast as we could, we didn?t take anything with us, just ran.
We got to the basement, there were about 6-8 children, including my sister and
me. There must have been at least that many adults too. We were all squished
into a very little room, there was a bed and a crib in the room. All the kids
hid under the crib. There was a man there that was really drunk and kept trying
to get out. I remember everyone trying to control him, finally my dad knocked
him out and he fell to the floor, where he remained.
"The wind was howling so
loud it sounded like a freight train was coming through the wall. Since it was
a basement, there were small windows up high. My mom and dad grabbed the
mattress of the bed and held it up to the window, I remember them struggle to
hold it in place, all the while the kids were crying. I remember holding my
little sister, she was so scared. It seemed like it went on for a long time.
Seemed like forever. I remember after a time it got very still for a while, then
started up full force again.
"I remember how
still it was after it was all over. When we went outside, the house across the
street, I remember they had just finished remodeling it, was completely gone,
only the front steps remained. All the power lines were down the only vehicle
on the street that didn't have a scratch on it was my dad's pickup. His
toolboxes were sitting on the sidewalk next to his truck. When we looked up on
the side of the building, we saw a 2X6 plank embedded straight into the wall of
our apartment, which was on the third floor.
"When we went up
to our apparent, everything was wet, my sister's favorite teddy bear was
soaked. There was water and glass all over the dining room table, including the
cherry pie. All the windows had blown out. When we went into the bathroom the
plank was sticking through the wall. There wasn't even a splinter around the
edge where it was wedged in the wall.
"You know it's
funny, I don't remember a thing after that, the clean up etc. It's funny that
when you are young you remember only the significant things in your life I feel
that that tornado was truly significant. I still talk about it and think about
it when I hear of tornado?s on the news. There was one this week that wiped out
an entire town in
Posted by: nws on 6/14/2007 at 4:26 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
I could see fast moving dark cloud with lots of debris floating around
"We lived at #1 South Terrace and I was 8
years old. We had just moved to
"That was my first
experience of tornado but I had two others. I outside of
"The third was when
I lived in Langdon. There I saw a small twister just south of Langdon heading
east. I got in my car and tried to follow it to get some pictures, but I
changed my mind as I thought I was getting to close. I remember that one
tearing the new asphalt that was just laid down on Highway 66 east of
Posted by: nws on 6/14/2007 at 4:23 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Lines were jammed and confusion seemed to be everywhere
"June 20,1957 dawned as a usual summer day but as the time
passed the air seemed to be more dense and muggy and the sky took on an unusual
yellowish cast. Around suppertime it began to grow dark in the west. I was
living in
"My parents lived on 10th Street and 12th Avenue so we were very concerned. We
quickly started driving to
"The front and back porches were ripped from the stucco house. The roof was gone and wires were all over. We couldn't get inside but we yelled and yelled and received no answer. Maybe they were gone, we did not know.. We made it back home and later picked up my sister at the bus station. We tried calling my parents phone, calling the Red Cross, police. Lines were jammed and confusion seemed to be everywhere.
"The next day
the Red Cross called and asked me to go to the hospital because they had some
unidentified people there and may be my Dad. It was not and later that day the
police called and had found my parents alive and well. They had hunkered down
in the basement while the storm blew fragments of all sizes around them. They
had dragged mattress into the kitchen which still had a ceiling and had slept
there. They had not heard us yelling because the roaring sound of the tornado
had deafened them along with the sirens screaming throughout the night. We
spent the next few days salvaging what we could. We brought tons of clothing,
bedding etc to my house and I washed sand, gravel and glass which had been
ground into the material. Traffic was horrific--it was stop and go from the 10th Street underpass many people wanting to see the devastation and , of course,
looters came filling their vehicles with whatever they could find. The streets
were patrolled by the police which really helped.. People would come back each
day and begin the cleaning.. My Dad went every day trying to gather what
belongings were left. He had a two-wheel trailer which went with the wind. My
Mother bemoaned the fact that the upright piano was destroyed and the loss of
her S&H green stamp books. Life goes on and they moved into an apartment." --- Jean and Dom Rolczynski
Posted by: nws on 6/14/2007 at 4:21 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
It was obvious that a major storm was about to hit
"Thursday,
June 20, 1957 started our like any other hot, humid day in Fargo, N.D. I was working for Jackson Construction
Company (cement crew) who was building houses in several locations in Fargo . Our work for the day was over and I returned
to my sister Gladys Hendricksonﾒs home at 2106 10th St. N. shortly
before the weather became increasingly threatening.
"My wife Mickey, our 6-month-old daughter Georgia,
and I were staying temporarily with the Hendricksonﾒs (I had accepted a
teaching position in Hawley) until we could find housing in that western Minnesota town. An
important factor was that my sister Gladys was the wife of meteorologist and
weatherman E. Vernon Hendrickson who was at his job at the Weather Bureau at Hector Airport
. Their two children Dawn (10) and Loel (9) were home with us at the time of
this historic storm. Fargo
certainly was not built up to the extent it is today.
"As the afternoon progressed, the sky became darker and grotesque in its character. I remember a color in the sky preceding the actual descending of the tornado which I had never seen before or since and it is difficult for me to describe. It was a yellowish, greenish, blackish grey in long rolling bands which predicted high winds. There were also cloud pockets of different shapes that certainly indicated heavy rain and/or hail.
"It was obvious as we approached the 6 p.m. hour that a major storm was about to hit which had potential for severe damage. WDAY in Fargo , which was a mainstay radio station for us, was issuing tornado warnings. I believe all the stations in the Fargo-Moorhead area did a good job in warning the people. They were in contact with the Weather Bureau and probably saved a lot of lives that evening. Gladys received two telephone calls from Vernon. The first advised us to get into the basement. The second call, about 6:30 p.m., as the tornado had dropped to the ground and was headed toward the airport, must have been the shortest conversation between Gladys and Vernon in their entire lives. It probably lasted less than five seconds. He told her we were in direct line of the tornado and should evacuate immediately.
"Gladys,
Dawn, Loel, Mickey with our baby Georgia, and I dashed to my car within
seconds. Without hesitation, we drove north which was our quickest way to
evacuate. We were not alone on the
streets which posed a real danger as some people were driving recklessly and to
my amazement were heading in all directions.
The approaching tornado now looked like a menacing black tower. I donﾒt remember in the excitement of
evacuation what streets we drove or what highway/county/country roads we
traveled once north of the tornadoﾒs path.
What I do remember is that it didnﾒt take us long to get to an
agricultural area northwest of the airport where we could watch, at a safe
distance, the tornado as it slammed into northwest Fargo. Because of the blackness of the clouds, the
debris, and dust, it was hard to determine the exact location where the tornado
was striking. The massive funnel
appeared to miss the airport tower (which it did), then destroy a drive-in theatre
(which it also did), but we were unable to follow the swerve to the south which
destroyed the Golden Ridge section of Fargo
.
"The tornado itself was followed by
torrential rains, but in our location, we did not encounter any hail.
There were several other vehicles with families who stopped along this country
road to fearfully watch, like us, the progress of the storm. The fast and furious driving we observed in
the city was not evident here as everyoneﾒs attention was riveted to the
progress of the roaring twister. It truly was an awesome display of natureﾒs
power. Here we also had the opportunity to observe the turbulent clouds and
were amazed to see other rope tornadoes in the sky. I believe Dawn counted
three rope tornadoes from our vantage point.
I didnﾒt think of it at the time, but later regretted not having a
camera to record natureﾒs display of fury.
With some trepidation, we drove back to the Hendrickson residence after
an absence of about an hour. We were
thankful the home had been spared but we also realized that major damage had
been inflicted to nearby parts of Fargo . In truth, we soon learned the city was in
turmoil with lost lives, major property damage, downed trees, and mangled
electrical lines. We did not realize on
the particular day that we had been part of the worst storm in Fargo ﾒs history.
"Next
morning, Friday, it was back to work with Jackson Construction Co. where I was
dispatched to a work crew to assess damage to homes and suggest a possible work
repair schedule. We did poorly at both.
People had been contacting the main office non-stop to request repair
estimates to their property. Much of the
Golden Ridge area was wisely cordoned off by Fargo officials because of the extreme damage
to buildings and the safety issues caused by downed trees and power lines. I do remember one extreme dichotomy of
emotion in aftermath to the tornado. We drove to one address where the owner
was excessively impatient for the immediate repair to his roof with only a few
shingles missing. At another, a calm call directed us to a residence which no
longer existed; only a concrete slab marked where yesterday there had been a
home and a family." --- William Curt Granlund, Battlement Mesa, Colo.
Posted by: nws on 6/14/2007 at 4:18 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
He said that the tornado was heading directly for Hector Field
As a young family, our lives remained focused on the weather. Following WW II, when I was born, we lived in an apartment in north Fargo and because cars were scarce, my father walked to work at the National Weather Service office at the old terminal at Hector Field. He had been in the Navy during the war and had been trained in meteorology. That explains why we continued to move north as the city grew. From the apartment, we moved to a new house just south of the old fair grounds, and then further on north to Tenth Street. We were always moving closer to the weather bureau and further into the treeless plains of former fields and new construction.
My father, E. Vernon Hendrickson, eventually became Meteorologist in Charge of the National Weather Service Office in Fargo and we lived directly east of Hector Field. I was ten years old at the time that the 1957 tornado developed west of town. It became known as an F5 tornado, the most destructive and powerful tornado to have ever hit this far north.
That evening, my father called twice from the airport. He said that the tornado was heading directly for Hector Field and that our house was in its path. His first directive was to go to the basement but the second call was more urgent. He said that we should get in the car and head north along Highway 81.
There was a lot of traffic and the sky was ominous. It was a sickly green color and the air was perfectly still. We drove north and saw three rope tornados against a steely grey sky; long, thin, white ropes with their tails snaking around on the ground and then up again into the dark sky.
The tornado was coming in from the west but then veered south and went through Golden Ridge, grazing the corner of NDSU and turning north again toward El Zagel Bowl. Following the devastation, the skies opened up and it began to rain torrentially. All traffic was prohibited into the city for the next three days.
The tornado itself didnﾒt seem so scary but, for the first time, I began to realize what it meant to have a relationship to a town. I really hadnﾒt been able to understand why we always had to live in construction zones amid muck and grasshoppers. I knew that there was a real town to the south with big old houses where social life thrived, and a downtown with movie theaters, restaurants and interesting characters.
So all of a sudden things changed for me, and I saw the destruction that the tornado caused to the town that I took for granted. From then on, I wanted to be part of that town and care for the places that create a rich community life. Now, I live in a house built in 1894 on a tree-lined street in south Fargo and can walk to work in downtown Fargo. I feel grateful to be part of a town with a tornado in its past. That ﾑ57 tornado awoke within me the concept of historic preservation. Sometimes it takes a tornado to make us realize how much we care about life in a town and the richness community brings to us all. Meanwhile, being a meteorologistﾒs daughter, I continue to keep my eyes on the sky. ---
Dawn Morgan
Fargo, ND
Posted by: nws on 6/14/2007 at 10:43 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
We worked through the night to save what we could from the wreckage
I have read many stories about the 1957 tornado in Fargo, but I have never seen any mention of the Mom & Pop grocery store located in the Golden Ridge area on the corner of 7th avenue and 27th street. My mother, Minnie Campbell, was the owner of that little store and her home adjacent to it. Fortunately, a friend drove her out of harmﾒs way just before the storm hit. When she returned she found the store and her home leveled.
As we worked through the night to save what we could from the wreckage, many strangers offered unselfish acts of kindness. The National Guard helped us load trucks with salvageable canned goods; a stranger (we never got his name) volunteered to wire my brother in Wisconsin that Mom was alive and safe; someone set up portable lighting so we could continue our work through the night; the Red Cross came by with hot coffee and welcomed doughnuts, and later a group of Hutterites arrived from Canada to assist in the clean up. The storeﾒs cash register was found in tact two blocks down the street.
Mom was in a state of shock not only with the loss of her home and livelihood, but also the loss of life in her neighborhood.
Although it was 50 years ago, events of that night are forever etched in my mind. Oh, and by the way, for some time following the storm my sister Pat Rheault and I would prepare dinner for our families with ﾓmystery foodﾔ, cans whose labels were ripped away in the wind. We never knew if weﾒd be serving green beans or peaches.
How wonderful people can be when disaster strikes. We were so grateful for every act of kindness.
Pearl Lien
Moorhead, MN
Posted by: nws on 6/14/2007 at 8:56 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
The storm was about five or six miles to the west of our house
On June 20, 1957, I was seven years old and my family lived at 1124 10 and ﾽ street North. This was about 1 and ﾽ blocks south of Matson Field, the northern end of Moorhead at that time. My brother, Dick, who was six years old, and I had been playing in the back yard on the east side of the house. The weather was hot and sultry, the kind of weather that tended to make one feel lazy. It was near dinnertime, a little after six oﾒclock, when my mother told us to come to the front of the house and see the clouds. She questioned my brother and I to see if we were seeing the cloud and what was different about it. She asked what it looked like. The storm was about five or six miles to the west of our house. The base may have been ten miles wide and not quite a mile off the ground; it was rotating slowly with striations spiraling around it to the wall cloud. Below the base of the cloud and attached to the center of it was the wall cloud that dropped to about 800 feet off the ground. It was about 1 and ﾽ miles to 2 miles in diameter. Because of its size, it appeared to be turning slowly. In reality, it was rotating quite rapidly with scud moving upward on its side. It appeared to be like a giant upside down birthday cake with greenish black frosting melting upward on the sides. Along the entire base of the wall cloud, scud appeared to be coming out of nonexistent chimneys and flowing up into the cloud. Attached to the north end of the wall cloud, pointing to the north was a serpentine like horizontal tail cloud. The tail cloud rotated slowly about a horizontal axis, sliding and slithering into the wall cloud. It reminded us of a snakeﾒs tail or a pipe stem. To my brother and I the wall cloud and the tail cloud looked like St. Nickﾒs pipe. The scenes of the ﾓMother shipsﾔ in the movie Independence Day and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, as they slowly and majestically move over the masses below, remind me of the emotion and the scene as the parent storm slowly moved toward us. People slowly and silently came out of their homes, interrupting their dinners, and gathered in stunned silence on the sidewalk and the street to see what we now call a supercell thunderstorm. The awesome spectacle attracted the attention of all the people with a clear view of the storm and people took many photos and movies to capture the unique event. I didnﾒt feel threatened by the storm. It was like a monstrous and strange creature from another dimension that was completely oblivious to our existence.
We had viewed the storm for what seemed like fifteen minutes, when my mother said the tornado had dropped out of the storm from the base of the wall cloud. My mother herded my baby sister, brother and I into the house and into the basement. My father phoned that he would be home in a few minutes. My mother brought a radio downstairs. I remember the static nearly wiping out the reception. Occasionally, we could make out fragments of information about where the tornado was and the destruction it was doing to the northern part of Fargo. My father stayed upstairs and watched the tornado through the front window. Finally, he came downstairs and said we had to get in the car. He thought the tornado was going to hit our house. We gathered up the dog and my baby sister and closed the windows of the house. As we went out side, I remember the winds feeling warm and then getting colder as an occasional raindrop hit me. The trees were bending to the ground in one direction and then bending over to the ground in another direction. It was as though wind was coming straight down from above. The sky, instead of being greenish-black, was now a white-gray madly racing to the east. Bluish-yellow lightning flickered horizontally back and forth in the low clouds accompanied by a continuous jet engine like rumbling back and forth overhead, punctuated by an occasional boom of thunder. I remember small flocks of birds circling one way then another as if they couldnﾒt figure out which way to go, screen doors slamming open and shut, window shades slamming repeatedly against windows as people struggled to close them, the buzzing of air vents on the sides of attics, garbage cans blowing over, and the lids coming off, rolling and tumbling along the ground.
We all got into the car and drove to the north on old U. S. highway 75 passing the sugar beet plant. As we did, my mother told my brother and I not to look back at the tornado. I felt if I did look back, I would turn into a pillar of salt like Lottﾒs wife. The storm was taking on biblical proportions. It turns out we were crossing the path of the tornado. As we drove further, the traffic jammed ahead of us. Cars pulled over to the side of the road in both directions. People were leaving their vehicles and going to the ditches and into culverts. Somehow we eventually got passed the traffic jam and drove about another mile north to an intersection. My father pointed the vehicle to the west and told my brother and I to get down on the floor, on our hands and knees, in front of the back seats and cover our heads. The car rocked in the wind and golf ball size hail pummeled the vehicle. In two minutes it was over and we drove back into town. The tornado had roped out a half mile to the southeast of the intersection where we had stopped. Ten miles further to the east the next tornado would drop. As we passed east of the sugar beet plant, we saw the tornado had torn up fences on both sides of the road, and downed power lines and power poles on the highway. We drove around them and back to our house. It was about 7:30 pm. None of the houses in Moorhead were damaged. It was like returning to a reality of being in a still life painting: the sky was a deep yellow and the atmosphere was silent and completely still. ---Doug Dokken, St. Paul, MN.
Posted by: nws on 6/14/2007 at 8:55 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
I am thankful I am able to attend our class reunion, 50 years later
I too was at home with five of my younger siblings that evening of June 20, 1957. Only we lived 40 miles away on a farm southwest of Audubon, Minn. I was 16 years old and had just graduated from Audubon High School in May. My parents and three of my younger siblings were visiting my aunt and uncle, who lived about 15 miles away.
I don't recall if there were any weather warnings for our area that evening, but the color of the sky to the west was warning enough. I gathered the children in and had them go to the basement for safety. We didn't have a telephone on our farm, but we did have a television. I remember clearly, Bill Weaver reporting on WDAY that a tornado had struck Fargo.
I'm sure my parents returned shortly after because it was milking time.
I don't think we had any damage in our area, but I will never forget the color of the sky that tragic evening.
I am thankful I am able to attend our class reunion, fifty years later in June 2007. ---
Dora (Haugen) Lee, Moorhead, MN
Posted by: nws on 6/14/2007 at 8:54 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Glass from the windows was embedded in the walls
I wasn't even born yet but I have a copy of the Fargo Forum that my
grandmother gave me. I read it from first page to last. I have always
had a fascination about tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. but events that
happen in my area just hold my interest.
I would like to pass on to you a story that my Earth Science
teacher told me about the Fargo tornado. My teacher, Mrs.. Geraldine
Deutsch, lived in north Fargo during the tornado. She said the day was
warm and sultry.
Mrs.. Deutsch had picked a big bouquet of peonies and placed them by the
fireplace. She was getting ready to serve supper and had just placed a
bowl of mashed potatoes on the table when she and her family took cover
from the oncoming storm. After the storm was over and they came out of
their shelter, the family was amazed by what it saw. The windows were
blown out.
Glass from the windows was embedded in the walls and the bowl of mashed
potatoes on the table. Everything just sparkled. Mrs.. Deutsch said
she looked at the vase of peonies by the fireplace and not one petal was
disturbed. They were just as beautiful as when she picked them.
My science teacher has been retired for many years now but this was
just one of many weather stories that Mrs.. Deutsch told us. Maybe this
is why weather has always fascinated me. This story has stayed with me
for many years. I have heard many stories about the power of a tornado
but this is one I will never forget. --- Sharon (Heidorn) Stevens, Page, ND
Posted by: nws on 6/14/2007 at 8:54 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
I have a vivid memory of the 1957 tornado, an account of a trying experience had by my brother-in-law Dewey Bergquist, who was the weatherman for WDAY-TV
I have a vivid memory of the 1957 tornado, an account of a trying experience had by my brother-in-law Dewey Bergquist, who was the weatherman for WDAY-TV.
On that day, Dewey, learning of the possible tornado wanted to get photographs of the funnel. He drove north of Fargo on U.S. Hwy 91 so that he would have unobstructed vision. The funnel did develop, of course, and he took a series of shots. Then, he realized the funnel was south of him, in town, and perhaps very close to his north Fargo home. This panicked him and he began to drive home. Some streets were covered by storm debris and he said he had to drive to some boulevards to wind his way home. When he got to his house, the hard was littered and he raced into his home. His wife, Frances (my sister), two sons and a daughter had all been in the basement after hearing the warning. (They had heard the "freight train.") All were safe.
Later, the photos he had taken represented an excellent sequence series of tornado formation, photos which were subsequently used by Encyclopedia Brittanica. ---
Gerry Haukebo, Pelican Rapids, Minn.
Posted by: nws on 6/14/2007 at 8:53 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
One of us had a transistor radio, and we listened to radio reports from Chicago
A group of 8th and 9th graders from First Lutheran was at a Bible Camp at Lake Carlos, near Alexandria, Minn., the week of the tornado. One of us had a transistor radio, and we listened to radio reports from Chicago saying that Fargo had been destroyed from 10th through 15th Avenues North. Many of our home addresses fit that description, so we assumed that was why none of our parents were contacting us. After a few hours, though, we were assured by the staff that our families were okay. At that time, I was a paperboy for The Forum and picked up my papers at Eugene Fitzgerald's house at 13th Ave. and 2nd St. N. That house was destroyed by the tornado. Except for being away at Bible Camp, I would have been in the area that night collecting from my customers. ---
Norval Lee, Fargo, ND
Posted by: nws on 6/14/2007 at 8:52 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
I wrapped her in all the blankets I could find
We were living in a trailer house at NDSU (NDAC then) where my husband, Chuck, was a student. My husband was working at Wold Drug in Moorhead, and I was home with our two-week-old baby daughter in the trailer court. It was 96 degrees inside, and I did not know about the tornado until my husband called and during the call, the phone went dead. I looked out the back window and saw the funnel. I also noticed that there were no cars left in the trailer park and I realized my daughter and I were the only ones there. I wrapped her in all the blankets I could find. My husband left work and could not get any closer. He saw all the destruction between his car and our trailer and thought the tornado had struck there, but there was no damage to any of the trailers, except hail damage. I had been working until two weeks before Laurie was born, so people did not realize I was home. Afterwards, one of the students who knew my husband (they were from the same town) came by to see if we were ok. The worst thing about the tornado is the six children from one family who perished. Some neighbors offered them a ride, but they chose to stay. --- Norma Lent, Erskine, Minn.
Posted by: nws on 6/14/2007 at 8:52 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
A Porch Blows Away, with us in it!
I was playing a softball game in South Fargo during the evening, and the pitcher said he was done and the game was over because of a big black cloud near Casselton. When to the north to near 10th St. and 12th and 13th Ave N., and there was a lot of wind, and I had to make a decision. Headed north and went right into tornado. We pulled over to a house and went into a strangers porch and tried to get in the house, but it was locked. The tornado struck and picked the porch up that we were in and dropped it across the street. I was on the top of the pile, but my mom was on the bottom of the pile. She broke her pelvis and I had some bruises, but we both ended up ok after a trip to the hospital. After this, I looked for our car days later and it had been impounded from the damage done to it. -- Dick Leverson, Fargo, ND
Posted by: nws on 5/26/2007 at 3:30 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
40 dollars well spent!
I was 9 at that time and lived at 1447 12 street North.
However our family was at our lake cottage at Lake Pelican. Nothing special about the evening of the tornado but the next morning I was walking to the Pelican Lake Resort and saw much debris in the trees and along the road. I remember finding 2 twenty dollar bills sticking out under some dirt on the road. To a kid I thought I was rich. My parents told me what happened in Fargo and said I could not spent it but had to wait a day to see if someone claimed it.
Posted by: nws on 5/24/2007 at 8:30 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
The driveway is still there, but no home
"Our address was 1213 10th St. N. and was across the street from American
Lutheran Church (now Peace Lutheran Curch). It was Thursday evening and
my partents, Art and Clara Schafte, had arrived home after grocery
shopping. They spoke about how black the sky was in the west, how
threatening it appeared, how it was such a stillness everywehre. The air
looked green. My mother began putting the groceries away and my dad was
watching the storm. Suddenly, he told my mother to "get down the basement
right now -- the storm is right across the street!" She said she had only
a few items left to put away. He shouted "No--get downstairs right now!"
They no more reached the basement in the southeast corner and the tornado
hit the home."
"Gravel poured down from the foundation in the corner by them. The sound
above them was like a giant freight train. They could hear glass being
smashed everywhere and crashes above them from the furniture being
destroyed and most of the roof being torn away. After the tornado passed,
they could hear noises as other homes were being destroyed and the storm
moved on. They said it was a most frightening experience. Then the rain
began and it rained a steady miserable drizzle all night.
"They went upstairs and pulled a dry mattress from a bed and layed down
under a small portion of the roof that was still intact. They spend the
night there and it was so dark, nothing could be seen. In the middle of
the night a policeman came with a flashlight and found them. He asked if
they were okay, and told them not to leave the house until daylight and
only after they had been told it was okay since the power lines were down.
"I had been living in Minnepolis with my sister Marleen and was about to
celebrate my 18th birthday (June 21st) by taking the day off to go home
and surprise my parents. Traveling by Greyhound the evening of the 20th,
the bus encountered very strong threatening winds by Alexandria, MN and
pulled over by a station. The driver was told that Moorhead had been hit
by a huge tornado and the whole city was gone, but it was safe to continue
since the storm had moved away. The news about Moorhead had me worried
since my sister Jean and her family lived there. A couple of hours later
(close to midnight), the bus arrived at the depot.
"I was prepared to take a taxi home since no one knew I was coming except
my sister Marleen. When I walked into the depot, my sister Jean's
husband, Ira, and his neighbor, Cecil Hanson were there and I knew
immediately that something was wrong. He said they came to bring me to
their house in Moorhead. I asked if Moorhead was hit and told them what
the driver was told. They said Fargo had been hit really hard and they
couldn't reach my parents. When we arrived at the house, we called the
hospitals but no one knew anything and we were told to wait until morning.
We learned later in the morning that my parents were safe.
"The most wonderful thing was that they were safe and were indeed fortunate
to have lived through this deadly tornado. If you pass by on 10th street
by Roosevelt Park, the trees are still standing there today, along with
the driveway, but no house -- a silent reminder of the 1957 tornado." --- Submitted by Terry Krile on behalf of Rennay (Schafte) Brown
Posted by: nws on 5/24/2007 at 8:24 AM | Comments (4) | Permalink
I was amazed to see the downed power lines in the street
"The day was extremely heavy. I remember looking at the sky before the tornado hit. It was greenish black. The sky looked sick, almost like it was ready to throw up. Our parents had just moved to a side-by-side duplex about 6 to 8 weeks ago. We lived on 11ﾽ street about 3 or 4 houses north of 12th Avenue North.
"I had just gone to the post office with my dad. I remember that sirens were blowing as we were driving home. Traffic was heavy on 13th Street N. in the direction of the airport as people were trying to get out of town. The tornado destroyed our home and almost everything we owned. On the radio we heard that there was a tornado on the ground between West Fargo and Fargo . Dad and I were outside watching the huge cloud approach. On the corner of 13th Street (now University Drive) and 12th Avenue North, there was a two or three-story building called the Y Dug Out. As we were watching, the building exploded. Too late to leave, we went into the house.
"We had no basement. Large hail broke windows and the storm sounded like a freight train. My mother, father, grandmother, sister (Carol) and myself retreated into an interior bedroom on the main floor of the house. We knew that the tornado was coming because of the radio as stated before. Even though it only took seconds to do the damage, it seemed like a long time. The scariest moment was when the roof blew off. Just magnify a thousand times the sound of a crowbar prying off a rusty nail. Our home was destroyed as a result of the tornado. The only room left standing was the bedroom where the five of us were in. My mother and father were under one twin bed. I grabbed my little sister Carol and hid under the other twin bed. When the foundation of the house came up off the ground, we kept sliding under the bed as it rolled across the floor.
"My grandmother, who was in Fargo visiting us, just knelt and prayed the rosary. She never had a scratch on her. We survived the tornado unhurt. There was a crucifix hanging on our living room wall with a splitter through it. I looked to the east when we went outside. It seemed that the tornado, after hitting Shanley High School , made a big S. That was my high school. My father had just bought a 1957 Chevy about six weeks prior to the tornado. It was completely totaled. There was piece of plywood in the vehicle that my dad and I could not even budge. The rear view mirrors were twisted like screws. Another neighbor had just bought a 1957 Plymouth Fury and was outside looking for his vehicle after the tornado. Another neighbor said that it was in his basement.
"I was amazed to see the downed power lines in the street. They were giving off sparks and looked like snakes. It was raining. Everyone was checking with neighbors to see if anyone needed medical help. I remember an older neighbor lady who had a cut to her ear. Someone stayed with her until help arrived. Sightseers were beginning to sift through the neighborhood and I noticed kids from school. It was amazing how the tornado skipped in its path of destruction. One side of a city block would be flat and the other side just damaged. We ended up walking to an aunt and uncleﾒs home on 10th Street north, about a mile away, as we had no place to go. Our view of the storm was obstructed by trees and houses. The storm hit our home only a matter of seconds after the Y Dug Out was hit. The two pictures I have are not that good. Everyone had to get identity tags to go across 12th Avenue. There were looters and the National Guard was called in. In those days there was no government help for people in disasters. I stayed with the family of a high school friend for 5 to 6 weeks. My brother, Don, who was at work at Gamble Robinson, that night, also stayed with a family of a friend of his. My parents and sister stayed with my aunt and uncle. Car insurance helped us to obtain a new vehicle. Because we had renterﾒs insurance, we were able to put a down payment on a home on 9th Street north.
Carol just wants to mention that I remember going under the bed with my brother David and the windows breaking. I was only three years old. My older brother, Don, was at work that night. Many families went through much anguish until they found out that their missing family members were safe. My family was lucky. For many years, I was deathly afraid of storms and weather warnings on television. I thought that this was a story that needed to be told. I only wish my parents would still be alive able to tell their story."
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 12:27 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
There was debris covering everything- all yards and the street
"I was born in Fargo and at the time of the June tornado I was 16 years old. My recollections of that day are very similar to most accounts- a hot, muggy day with the sky turning a greenish gray color. News reports sent my mother and I to the basement of our home (located on 18th Street North and 11th Avenue just a few blocks east of the Golden Ridge area) as my father watched at the back door (facing west). He then joined us as we lost our radio signal and said 'We're going to lose the house.' The sound was just like a locomotive coming down on top of you and you never forget it.
"It rained briefly afterwards and my mother and I went for a walk. There was debris covering everything- all yards and the street. Our home was spared as were the homes immediately around us. Within a block we saw a garage missing- an entire home gone with just the front steps sitting in the yard. The 'round house,' a switching area for trains, was about two blocks from us and there were huge rail cars scattered everywhere along with buildings nearby flattened.
"Damage to trees was unbelievable- the streets near North Dakota Agricultural College (now NDSU) were lined with beautiful huge elm trees that met as a canopy over the streets- all totally destroyed- not a single tree was standing. This event changed my life -my father was going to retire in 1958 after I graduated from high school.Instead he retired the summer of 1957 selling our home to a couple who had lost their home in the tornado.
"We moved to a home on a small lake in Minnesota and I graduated from Frazee High School in a class of 28 -none of whom I knew . I never was able to keep in touch with any of my classmates from Fargo and as an only child felt very close to many of them. My family was fortunate but the tornado surely did affect our future in a very lasting way. If anyone form the class of 1958 reads this -I live in a log home on Leech Lake near Walker -my husband and I are retired."
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 11:03 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Everything I owned was soaked
"I was at the Legion Baseball game and it was very warm and humid. We were at 8th Street North and 7th Avenue. It took down large trees in the area and I believe we were just south of the eye. We stood outside listening to the roar and when the large rain drops started to fall we went into the basement of the two story house and in a matter of minutes the TV antenna was ripped off the house next door and the small basement windows blew open. We held them shut which was difficult even though the houses were very close together.
"They announced it at the ball game and told everyone to get to a safe place, preferably a basement. I believe the game was being played at Jack Williams Stadium. I was renting a room at 1023 13th St. N. The roof and north side of the house were blown away. A 2 X 4 went through the wall and moved my pillow to the other side of the room. Good thing I wasn't taking a nap.
"Everything I owned was soaked but stayed in the room. It even took the cupboard doors off and left the cups and dishes on the shelves. Wierd. I will try to find the pictures. We could only see the clouds above us due to the large trees around all of the houses. They were light to dark clouds and swirling with sporadic heavy rain. Yes, I have a number of pictures and will get them to you. I am thankful for the warning so we could get to a safe place. Property can be replaced." - N. Ft. Meyers, Fla.
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 11:02 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Everything looked so green
"It was humid and warm until the sky turned black. I lived 1136 7th St. N. and this is where I saw the tornado coming. I was in the path and it blew down the garage next door toward the avenue. Our garage was damaged and our porch had a limb through it. Until we headed for the basement when the wind got very strong, we observed the tornado for about 4 or 5 minutes. My mother heard warnings on the radio and gathered us and the dog up ready to head for the basement. When we went outside it was like a different world. It was totally calm with bright sun and damp air. Very beautiful.
"I saw power lines down, trees across the streets and tree branches all over. Everything looked so green. We had a piece of metal sliced into our tree out front. We had leaves all over inside our house but all the screens were intact and the fireplace had a board over it. Leaves were even in drawers. Very strange. To my memory it was beautiful until this big black cloud stormed in. It rotated clockwise as I remember. Before the National Guard came in my friends and I had walked downtown Fargo to look around and see if there was any damage. About 10 PM we headed home and found National Guard check points and we as kids had no ID.
"They wouldn't let us go home. Phones are out and we have no way to contact our parents. Finally, I thought of my neighbor who was a Fargo policemen. We went to the Police Dept. and he gave us his card and a note telling the National Guard who we were and where we lived. We finally got home about midnight to worried parents."
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 11:01 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
We had no idea how bad Fargo had been hit
"I was between my freshman and sophomore years of school on that day. I was laid up in my house that complete summer, due to a very severe kidney infection, and will never forget that day.
"It started out as a typical North Dakota summer day. Clear skies, and it was going to be warm and muggy, which it was. There was also no breeze at all that day. I was in our kitchen at 1806 5TH Street north, and looked out the window, (this was approximately 1 p.m.). I saw a strange, but small cloud that looked like it was about by Hector airport. We didn't pay much attention to it, until we looked out again about 2 hours later, and noticed the cloud had grown a bit is size, but seemed to be in the same spot. It had turned a darker color also. We sat in the kitchen and were able to watch it grow in size. and it appeared to have an anti clockwise movement to it. My father came home and told us to head for the basement.
"He had heard that a tornado was headed straight for Fargo. We watched it from the Southwest window of the basement and saw the air fill with what looked like a lot of dust. Then the hail started, which lasted about 10 minutes. We were very lucky, because we sustained a minor amount of hail damage, and that was all. We had no idea how bad Fargo had been hit. My uncle who lived in Barnesville, had heard a call on the radio that anyone who could hear the broadcast that had a station wagon, please come to Fargo and act as an ambulance. He was there in less than a half hour and took several people to the hospital.
"After the tornado passed, we went and looked out our front window, and saw the funnel that had touched down going up to a cloud. Then we noticed another funnel going from that cloud to a nearby cloud. Almost like the funnels were holding the clouds together."
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 11:01 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
We felt very safe until the wind hit
"On the 20th of June, 1957, I had just celebrated my 6th birthday at 1909 7th St. N. in Fargo. That house, still standing, was three houses north of Barnett Field. The neighbor boys and I used to catch home run balls over the left field fence. On that afternoon, my mother, told my two younger sisters and I to go down to the basement. My father was out of town, I think. I assume she had heard about the tornado from Dewey Bergquist or neighbors. Our picture window faced west and the sky was very dark. I remember being disappointed on not being able to see the funnel.
"Our neighbor family of four joined the four of us in the vegetable cellar, a tiny extension of the basement under the steps at the southwest corner of the house. We felt very safe until the wind hit. I do remember the sound of the hail hitting the picture window above us. It was so loud that we were all convinced that the window was gone and that the hail was striking the wood floor over our heads. I also remember that we had a small radio that announced a request for all police personnel to report to duty. Even as a six-year-old kid I thought it funny that my neighbor said, "I didn't hear that." He was a policeman. I believe that he still lives there 50+ years later.
"We were able to take a short tour of the area afterward. I only remember a two-story house without a wall. Exposed to view was the bathtub and a picture hanging on the wall above it and there were yellow flowers on the wallpaper.
"Our house was apparently well north of the worst of the storm as I don't think we had any serious damage. No broken windows, but the siding was really dented. That same neighbor ironically managed to build a garage largely out of the storm debris. I have a photo of that garage, with my playing baseball with the garage as a backstop. We put our own dents into the siding over the next several years." --- Tim Hansen, Houston, Texas
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 11:00 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Homes were completely gone
"I was with our mom and another sister visiting one block away on that humid night. My dad had asked me to go to the Twins baseball game, but it was too hot for me. Well, he still went to the game, but upon his approach to the ball bark, he was able to visually see what was coming from the west, and chose to drive home instead. That was where my sister picked up in her story.
"As for me, I had been sent down to a small grocery store another block away from home and was fighting the heavy winds that came prior to the tornado in my ride back to where my mom was. After many attempts to get my bicycle to stand on its kickstand with the wind blowing it over, I was yelled at at the front door to run in. The power went out almost immediately upon my entry, and they told us to all run to the basement. There was an apartment there and no one was home, so we had to go to the north-east corner.
"We stood and watched as the winds blew and stripped trees of their leaves. Our previous home was only three doors down, so we were watching what was happening there. Luckily, the storm had passed to the north, so no windows or damage was done to the house we were in. When we went out front to 13th Street (now University Drive) it was apparent that up towards our home the street was blocked with debris. Moments later, my dad and sister came to tell us of the destruction to our home and neighborhood. What a shock to go home climbing over all the debris of people's belongings and tree limbs and wires and see our home. As we were standing the in complete shock, crying, and wondering what to do next, the rains came, dropping inches of water, ruining everything that had been left behind by the tornado.
"As a paperboy for the Fargo Forum, I was more shocked as I delivered only days later on a route that was just north and east of where we lived. Homes were completely gone. Where I threw their newspaper to the front steps days before were now stairways that dropped to the open basements. I saw my sisters' prom dresses that they had worn just weeks prior hanging in a tree two blocks east of our house. A lady recognized our family photo that had been transported to Hawley, 15-20 miles East of Fargo by the winds. The photo was twelve years old, but she recognized our father as a worker she had seen at the postal window of the Fargo Post Office. She delivered it to him. We lost most of our family photo albums so this photo was indeed precious and remains such. Of the four siblings, my baby album was the only one that survived, and it was found in the walls behind the wall plaster when the house was repaired. It is dirty, torn, and water-stained, minus the cover. A grim reminder of the storm that hit back in '57 that I still take out and look at every so often." --- Jim Knutson
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 10:59 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
We had no more than 5 or 10 minutes to find shelter
"On the evening of the devastating tornado, hundreds of high school boys throughout North Dakota were at the annual State FFA Convention at North Dakota Agricultural College (NDSU). At 7 p.m. on June 20, we were at Festival Concert Hall for the beginning of the evening program. The air was very humid and hot. All doors to the Hall were open to help with the stuffiness.
"About 7:30 p.m. the Vo-Ag Instructor and FFA Advisor from Bismarck,Cliff Nygard, rushed in and told everyone to leave the Hall as a tornado was heading our way.Some of us ran over to the old Library, went downstairs and watched the impending storm. We had no more than five to 10 minutes to find shelter. Luckily, no one of our group was seriously hurt or killed. I recall seeing Vo-Ag Professor Shubel Owen running towards our location when a large Garbage lid flew by just missing him.
"After the tornado passed through, we left the library and saw that the YMCA building located at University and 12th Avenue. was severely damaged while trees were downed everywhere.Many of us spent the evening helping others calm down. One man told us he lived in a second floor apartment,looked out and saw a car fly by his window. There were no phone connections to call parents about their sons until much later. As we looked east of the college we saw many houses with their roofs blown away but otherwise intact." ----Fargo, N.D.
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 10:59 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
We only suffered minor roof damage
"I was born about an hour before it struck. Right after I was born, I was told that my sisters were telling everyone in the neighborhood that I was born. After dad looked to the west, he immediately told my sisters to come back in the house and go to the basement. We were living at 1642 9th St. N., about a mile southeast of Hector Airport . We only suffered miner roof damage, but Shanley High School , which was just 4 blocks south of us, was totally destroyed." ---Bowling Green, Ohio
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 10:58 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink
When we were all in the basement, we heard thumpings and crashings
"I was 5 years old and lived with my family at 714 Fifth Ave S. in
Moorhead at the time of the tornado. I had played outdoors most of the
day that day and I remember it was very sticky and hot, by evening it
was very still and the sky was heavy with clouds.
"My pregnant mother, my two teenage sisters, my 15-month-old baby brother and I were
watching WDAY TV, after supper, when the entire screen went white and a loud announcer's voice stated sharply 'There is a tornado. Please get into your basements.' This was repeated several times.
"My mother grabbed my brother and shooed the rest of us through the dining room towards the basements steps. We all stopped in front of the picture window in the dining room, which faced northwest, and stared at the sky, which appeared to be boiling black and angry bottle green. I remember seeing birds literally thrown acroos the sky, and some hitting
the ground so hard they bounced. There was a deep, loud roaring sound, which to this day I can hear in nightmares.
"When we were all in the basement, we heard thumpings and crashings, but the house seemed quite steady. It seemed to happen very quickly and very slowly at the same time. When it got quiet, our mother let us go upstairs and eventually out of the house, but not out of the yard. I remember that the air felt damp, but much cooler. There were leaves and
branches and hailstones lying on the yards and in the streets. Our mother talked nervously with several neighbors, waiting for my father to contact her.
"My father was at work. He was the owner-operator of the Texaco service station at 8th and Main in Moorhead. My mother finally got into her car and drive to the station, eventually coming home with our father. He said that he had stood in the repair bay and looked southwest, watching the oncoming funnel. He said it filled the sky and looked as
if it were coming directly into downtown from the southwest behind the F-M Hotel. He said that when the wind began to push him down, he ran inside and used a large metal table as shelter, but the storm never reached as far as Moorhead.
Later that evening, I remember hearing my eldest sister talking quietly to her boyfriend in our kitchen. He was in the ND National Guard (I believe) and had been helping with clean up
in Golden Ridge. He was very upset and crying about seeing the bodies of children killed by the storm. The next day our mother drove us around the edges of the damaged neighborhoods and out to the Fargo Country Club to see just how violent such a storm could be. I remember seeing empty slabs with no homes left on them and plumbing pipes just
hanging in the air with all the structural parts of the houses gone. Insulation was strewn about everywhere and wood pieces and broken trees, along with broken furniture, clothing, toys and household items. It looked like a war zone picture from a movie. The barn doors were torn off out at the Country Club, a building had been moved several inches off of its foundation and a brick chimney had been toppled into the yard. There were many broken trees there as well.
"I had nightmares for years afterwards and had a deathly fear of tornadoes for many years." ---Saint Paul, Minn.
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 10:57 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
As I started for the living room the tv and all the lights suddenly went off
"The evening of June 20, 1957 started as a typical summer evening. I was in the kitchen doing the supper dishes and the rest of the family was away. From the living room came an announcerﾒs voice over the television set giving warnings of a tornado. Having heard such warnings before, I gave no thought to them. A knock at the back door was heard. It was our next door neighbor with a bouquet of peonies which she wanted us to have as she thought the rain would ruin them. I mentioned the possibility of a tornado, but she tossed it off lightly. Having finished with the dishes, I went out to the front porch and noticed how dark it had become. Cars were going faster than usual with their lights on.
"People were running down the street to reach their homes. I went out into the backyard and gazed at the sky. Funny, yellow clouds were racing every which way. My dad drove up and said he had seen a long black funnel in the western sky. The neighbor moved his garbage can closer to his garage and thought, 'how silly, we might get a little wind and rain, and he moves his garbage can for fear it might blow over.' By this time a slight wind had come up. Then the leaves and dirt started to make little whirlpools of dust. My dad and I went into the house. 'You go close the upstairs windows, and Iﾒll close the ones down here,' my dad said. 'No, you close the ones upstairs, and Iﾒll close windows down here,' I replied. I got them all closed except for one which stayed open an inch.
"As I started for the living room the TV and all the lights suddenly went off. I went to close the door on the front porch and heard a mighty, deafening roar from the west. The sky was entirely gray. It seemed to be coming nearer and nearer. With some effort, I managed to force the door shut.'Letﾒs head for the basement,' said my dad. We reached the basement and crouched down in the southwest corner as the television announcer had advised over and over.
"Soon the roar was all around us. Dirt was flying all around and my ears were popping constantly. Now and then the tinkle of breaking glass was heard as our windows were forced in. A sickening, yellow dust penetrated the air as I prayed that this would soon be over and we would still be safe. I saw a yellow flash as a transformer went up in flames. In about five minutes the roar subsided, and looking out of a window, I saw a pink rooftop in our backyard which I thought must surely be our neighbors house roof. It turned out to be their garage roof.
"Going upstairs I was hoping that everything would be perfectly all right. The blinds were flapping slightly in the breeze where the windows had been broken. A lamp was tipped over on the table where the bent blind had pushed it. Then I noticed the outside. The trees were as bleak and barren as if it were winter. Most had been left standing and had almost no branches remaining. My next thought was of the upstairs floor. My dad had tried to get the door open but failing to do so, pushed hard and broke a piece off of it. We both gazed up into a clear, blue sky. The upstairs had been entirely swept away. A few odd items. A clock, ironically, was heard ticking away slowly, slowly.
"Going out into the yard we found to say the least a terrible mess. Hardly an inch of ground was not covered by the debris. Wires, trees, clothes, boards, furniture, stucco, glass, nails, and toys constituted part of the destruction. People were coming out of their houses to survey the damage caused by the fierce wind, which in a few minutes could so utterly destroy so may yearsﾒ work. The rest of the family came home from the next block where only a few garages and trees were blown over. They couldnﾒt believe their eyes at the sight all around them.
"As if all this were not bad enough, it began to rain. With no upstairs to protect the rest of the house, the rain cam right on through soaking everything. We were all helpless, having nothing to cover the our furniture. Two boys offered to run for canvas covering, which they did. Not everything could be covered, so some things were totally soaked. Even after the rain did stop, drops continued to fall, each one making a desolate sound. Some friends offered their homes for the night, but I was unable to sleep at all! I lay in bed imagining what our house would look like when it was completely rebuilt. Most of the time I worried about what our family was going to do with no place to live. Things always have a way of working out it seems. We found a place to live where we stayed until a week before Thanksgiving. Our home is now all new, with some lovely changes. Just the same, I would never care to relive that." --- Frisco, Colo.
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 10:57 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Many people were seen evacuating
The following is paraphrased from interview with warning meteorologist the night of the Fargo F5:
"I was working along on a swing shift in my first year in the weather bureau. There were plenty of thunderstorms over the previous weeks, which likely added to moisture through the area. The evening had the feel of thunderstorms, and I was almost sure there would be thunderstorms that evening. I wrote up a severe thunderstorms statement templates once getting on shift around 4 to 5 p.m. anticipating severe weather (this is great considering limited data at best for the era). We had teletype circuits connected to radio and TV stations, so they could pick up a receiver and talk directly to them. Also had direct line to Kansas City to transmit severe weather warnings. Air defense radar near Finley, they were not cooperative. They would contact Fargo Wx. Bureau w/ radar reports at times, but none that night.
"There was a line of storms approaching from west, and he eventually noticed what he thought was a TOR, called tower and confirmed it was a TOR near Wheatland/Mapleton and it did not last very long. This was about 45 min before Fargo tornado. It was a small CB attached to the SW of the line. He prepared/sent the statement for the tornado, 'we only had our eyeballs' and that was about all, no radar, satellite etc. 'They really in a sense didnﾒt need anymore warning,' as you could see it coming in from the west. He called his wife in south Moorhead and told her to get in basement.
"As the line approached, the storm was blue/green with mesocyclone rotating rapidly and very evident above collar cloud after initial touchdown from separate storm. The telephone began ringing off the hook. PA showed up, Vern Hendrickson to assist with Conelrad (Civil Defense Warning System/ WDAY was primary). RAWARK to KC telling them about tornado.
Talking to Radio/TV stations live at this point about approaching tornado, cloud moving into W. Fargo , with cloud base between 2500-3000ft ﾓlow for a tornadoﾔ (low LCL heights!) Tornado dropped out of cloud, beautiful cone shaped with sharp point on ground. Point became less sharp and larger as it went through Golden Ridge area and widened to about ﾾ mi wide. Lost all communications and went outside to observe tornado. Sides of houses were seen flung around the tornado, was about 3/4mi from tornado, east of Moorhead roped out. Tornado was initially due west of airport, then dropped south and turned east, then northeast into MN. (this lines up well w/ Fujita track)
"Many people were seen evacuating the city, and it could have been much worse had tornado tracked along crowded roads from people evacuating.
"Tail cloud was observed extending 1 mile from parent wall cloud, precip occurred after tornado passed, none before and not much to south of fargo, even south fargo . Back edge of squall line, extended quite a ways north of Fargo." --- Ray Jensen, Last Chance Ranch Texas
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 10:56 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
The college YMCA was severely damaged
"It was the 20th of June 1957. The day was hot and humid. I was in Fargo for the N.D. State FFA convention that was being held at NDSU. I was the Vo-Ag Instructor and FFA adviser at Lakota High School, Lakota N.D. We were assembling at the Fesival Concert Hall at NDSU at about 6:30 for our 7 p.m. evening session.
"Someone made an announcement that a reported tornado was approaching from the southwest. He urged us all to move to the basement of the new library that was across the street. I helped usher all the FFA members into the library. I watched as the storm approached. There was a large funnel cloud with varying colors. Debris began flying so I headed for the basement.
"As the tornado passed over, we had extreme pressure on our ears. It was pitch dark as the electricity was off. I don't recall how long we stayed in the basement. After we determined that it was safe to leave, we found the aftereffects of the tornado. The glass in the entry way of the library was broken and the Festival Concert Hall had much damage. My car was pelted and needed repainting. The car parked in front of mine was crushed by a fallen tree. After the tornado passed, there was an eerie calm. Our group from Lakota walked around the area.
"We observed much damage. The college YMCA was severely damaged. There was water spewing from pipes where trailer homes had stood. We saw many homes that were badly damaged. Several homes had entire walls missing and we could see directly into the house. I remember seeing a bath tub exposed since the wall was gone. That evening we stayed in our rooms at Ceres Hall which had no electricity. The next morning we headed for the Health Center as one of our FFA members had his insulin there.
"As we approached we met the nurse and she asked if we knew who had insulin in the health center. She said the health center was badly damaged and needed to be closed. The convention was canceled and we returned to Lakota." --- Martin Aaser
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 10:01 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
I was 17 when the big tornado hit Fargo
"I was 17 when the big tornado hit Fargo . My family was living at 1229 2nd St. N. in Fargo . It was a hot summer day and the black clouds built up rapidly, turning the light a strange yellow-green color.
"As the sky darkened, the radio warned us to take cover and we hid in the southwest corner of the basement. My sister was 15 and my parents in their 50s. I remember being fascinated by the awe that the warnings created and the sound of the approaching storm. It was very loud and deep like a roar, there was a quiet portion in the middle time. I watched through a basement window and saw the white birch tree that was in the front yard lay branches across the window well.
"The branches were still quivering as they lay there. The birch tree was not very damaged although and old garage two houses to the south was demolished and huge parts hit our roof and walls as they disintegrated. An apple tree was broken and garden flower and vegetable plants were demolished. My sister and I after surveying the damage decided to clean up the yard and did so although neighbors said we were not allowing the insurance investor to survey the damage properly.
The damaged roof and walls were still plainly visible. There were power lines on the front yard and a young civil defense neighbor warned us to stay away from them. The photos in the Fargo Forum and reports from neighbors who had not gone below ground sensitized us to the severe damage that had been done to other parts of the town." -- Moorhead, Minn.
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
When they ventured upstairs, people were screaming and crying
"I was 17 years old and my parents had gone to Fargo ( 1146 11th St. N.) to celebrate an anniversary with relatives at home. They were cooking and having a good time, not paying too much attention to the weather until it became apparent that it had to be taken seriously.
"They watched the black clouds roll in the north and heard the roar. Yes, it did sound like a freight train. My dad wanted to photograph the clouds but my mom pulled him downstairs while it passed over them. They heard the crashing and then silence. When they ventured upstairs, people were screaming and crying.
"The only damage to their house was broken windows so they went outside to help. People were wandering around bleeding, hurt, crying ﾗ one woman was carrying a baby asking for something with which to feel the baby but then not waitingﾗshe just kept going. I was alone in Pelican Rapids and had been listening to the radio which told me that the tornado had passed over their area. My parents knew how frightened I would be and wanted to assure me that they were alive. Their car had been moved 50 feet from itﾒs parking spot. The phone lines were down and Dad walked to the car which miraculously started and drove to Moorhead where he was able to call me. He didnﾒt think of the danger of driving across downed live power lines. He returned just before the area was closed to traffic.
"The houses around them were severely damaged. Many had been destroyed but there were no deaths that I know about. One house had the outside walls completely removedﾗall items in the cupboard were untouched and in perfect order. Debris was everywhere and people were searching through it for their possessions. One men kept sweeping his front stepsﾗsomewhere he had found a broom but it was all that was left of his house.
"My parentﾒs didnﾒt want to leave Fargo; they had some kind of a need to stay there that they couldnﾒt explain. Finally after four days, they came home to Pelican. The memory of that horrible night stayed with them for a long time as it did with me." --- Pelican Rapids, Minn.
Posted by: nws on 5/16/2007 at 9:57 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
A compelling story
"I was only 4 ﾽ years old, but I distinctly remember the sights, sounds, and smells of the tornado that rolled through Fargo on June 20, 1957. My family and I rode out the storm in our basement located at the corner of 11th Avenue and 27th Street North. It's edge passed about 750 feet to our south.
"Before the tornado hit, the air was damp and the temperature was moderate, about 80 degrees. It started out as a normal summer day. We knew it was coming because of the warnings on the television just after suppertime. The weatherman said it was tracking from Casselton (20 miles straight west), then Mapleton (10 miles straight west), and to seek shelter immediately because it would probably hit Fargo. A hypnotizing green infiltrated the calm air. Everything fluoresced green for about 15 minutes before it hit. The tornado came from the ominous black cloud from the west.
"Eventually, the window became dark, like night, with occasional and then constant flashes of light. The winds made deep guttural sounds as though they were speaking a foreign language. Then the sounds from outside that window became deafening. The concrete wall had cracked, leaving a two-inch gap. Suddenly, it was as though we were sitting under a big, black, diesel locomotive and the buzzing sounds were overcome by the roar of the passing train. My cousin , whose face was about 10 inches from mine, started to scream. I looked into her eyes, I couldn't hear her screams, so I screamed and I couldn't even here myself.
"After the tornado rumbled away, it became really cold outside. It rained, turning all the dirt the tornado brought in to mud. The sirens blared outside. My Aunt, who'd been working downtown, came running in. She said she'd broken away from a cop and had run down 27th Street. She'd seen dead people and nothing but piles of wood. We spent the night at my cousin's house near downtown.
"We came back the next morning. Soldiers with guns were on patrol. At suppertime, a Red Cross wagon stationed itself in front of our house. I still felt freezing cold, but their warm food and smiles warmed me inside and out. My mom made all our meals after that, but the ladies gave us hot cocoa and doughnuts. That was nice.
"My mom read us the newspaper accounts. The pictures are seared into my mind. But for the grace of God, it could have been any or all of the 14 children and 4 adults who were in our basement that day. I sat on the front steps for days and waved to the stream of onlookers in cars. We were alive and I was grateful. Our neighbors to the south were not so fortunate. Plumes of smoke billowed in the air when they burned what remained of their homes. The stench permeated our neighborhood. My mom had one of my brothers take me closer to one of the burns because I thought the smoke was another tornado coming. To this day, when plumes of smoke billow, it still reminds me of a tornado. Normally we were not allowed in the damaged area because of glass and nails. But stories of the damage abound. The tornado took a few lives, many homes, a dump truck, a backhoe and trees.
"Yet it was so fickle. It left some houses, many lives and even unbroken eggs! Lots of the neighbor's possessions were dumped in the field west of the railroad roundhouse (about 12th Avenue and 23rd Street North). Some things were never found. Some lives were changed forever.
"Birds returned the next summer and my mom was always after me for climbing the trees because there were so many broken branches. Many neighbors decided not to rebuild so there were many empty lots. All that remained on some were concrete slabs or a ring of foundation blocks where homes once stood.
"The news inaccurately reported our whole neighborhood (drain 10 to 25th Street and 12th to 7th Avenue) as the Golden Ridge addition. Actually, there were 2 Additions: Golden Ridge (annexed in 1954) and College 2nd (annexed in 1921). College 2nd addition (29th to 25th Streets) is where most of the houses were destroyed and the tragic deaths occurred. Golden Ridge (drain 10 to 29th Street) was where the County grade school (which also housed the American Lutheran Church) was. It was still mostly cropland with a few houses on 7th Avenue which were not destroyed.
"Our whole neighborhood was renamed Madison in 1959 when the James Madison Grade School was finished and opened. But, because of the tornado of 1957 and subsequent news reports, we will always be called the Golden Ridge neighborhood or area by many. The reputation of being poor, undereducated and tough remains today--50 years later-- even though it is inaccurate for the most part. I've lived in the Madison Neighborhood almost my whole life. I love its boundaries and seclusion. We are bounded by commercial and industrial development. Homes have been built where lives were shattered by destruction. Hard-working, friendly people have moved in, just like it was before the tornado. I feel safe again.
"I've never felt comfortable cloaking myself with nicknames or with those stigmas because I know that's not who I am or who we are or were. I find it demeaning. The tornado disrupted many lives throughout the city and countryside. It was really more a matter of degree than kind.
"The tornado that rolled passed our house in 1957 taught me to be respectful of all weather extremes. It also taught me to be mindful of prejudice and intolerance. And I will always be grateful for the people at the weather bureau who warned us that day. In fact, I consider them to be my heroes. And I thank you all for allowing me to share my experiences and reflections." -- Karen E. Brown
Posted by: nws on 5/12/2007 at 1:36 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
I viewed the tornado from Moorhead
"My
daughter were at a grocery store on Main Avenue in Moorhead and the manager
came and told me I had better get home. We live on 15th Avenue in north
Moorhead so we left. We got to the corner of 11th Street and 13 Avenue north in Moorhead, and
we looked west at the most unbelievable sight ever - the tornado was
in El Zagel at the time and looked like an enormous egg beater with debris
flying around. If it had not turned at the river, my
daughter and I would never have made it home in time.
"We ended up with some debris in our yard. Also, we drove out north on Highway 75, stopped and there was a white tornado coming from the east. We watched it as it went up over Highway 75 in front of our vehicle and continued west. It did not cause any damage. I had never had such a feeling of shock and disbelief as my daughter and I watched that tornado. So sad for the loss of lives and destruction that it caused. I hope never to see another one." ---Edith Bergh
Posted by: nws on 5/12/2007 at 1:34 PM | Comments (4) | Permalink
I could see a large white cloud
"On that date I was a farmer in Sheridan county, ten miles southwest of Mcclusky, N.D.
"I happened to be farming on a fairly large hill in that area. What was intriguing to me was that as I looked to the east I could see the large white cloud protruding above the horizon. Anyway, I was interested enough to drive to Fargo to observe the damage.
"The distance of course is something like 200 miles! I hope this is some help to your research." --- Bismarck, N.D.
Posted by: nws on 5/10/2007 at 11:47 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
We could see transformers blowing up
" At that time of the Fargo tornado, we lived at 1032 12th St. N. in a basement apartment.
"I was a student at North Dakota Agricultural College (now NDSU), and my wife was a nurse at St. Luke's. Before the storm, we were outside with the landlord commenting on how nice the area looked and how beautiful the evening was. Things changed. Warnings were issued that tornado activity was spotted at Casselton. Dewey Bergquist saved a lot of lives by broadcasting the path.
"The landlord and I watched the progress until we could see transformers blowing up and then went down to the basement bathroom which was under the stairs. When it was over he had lost his two-car garage which was blown west into the neighbor's house, the roof on his house lifted but was not torn off, his car in the garage did not move, our car was drivable but declared a total loss, and his front steps were thrown westward too.
"The house to the south received surface damage, while the house to the north needed major repairs; the house to the north of that was torn down, and the house to the north of that was totally gone except for a three-cornered china closet which stood, but the carpet under it was gone. I wish we had taken pictures." --- Alexandria, Minn.
Posted by: nws on 5/10/2007 at 11:46 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
We could see the tornado
"My wife and I lived on the corner of 11th Avenue north and Oak, and I was a student at NDSU. Standing in the middle of 11th Avenue north and looking directly west, we could see the tornado (presumably in the Buffalo area).
"The sun was shining and one could see the distinct core (more than just a funnel) and looking at it from the east, it appeared black. Our neighbors on the other corner of 11th and Oak invited us into their basements (we had none). After a bit, the neighborﾒs wife became claustrophobic and was determined not to get trapped, so she said we should get in the car and drive south. This we did and ended up south on US 81.
"The sky had become overcast by that time, and looking up we could see multiple little funnels spawning and that there was one great disturbance north of us over Fargo.
"It started to rain and we inched our way home. Heavy rain followed. Arriving at our homes, we had a bucket near the rear door that was up-ended. That was the total for us. One and one half blocks north of us, the devastation looked like a war zone as that black twister had cut a swath across north Fargo and on into Minnesota." --- Locust Grove, Ga.
Posted by: nws on 5/10/2007 at 11:45 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Our neighbors had little damage
"On June 20, 1957, my husband, 10-month-old son and I were living in a home we had built the previous year at 1742 6th St. S. in Fargo. My husband was an engineer with NW Bell in the area office in Fargo . He came home for dinner that evening and all of us were aware of storm warnings. We had our meal, the sky became ominous, and we turned the radio to the local station for current news. As the winds increased, so did the warnings. We were advised to go to the basement to the northwest corner.
"I took the baby, a supply of diapers and milk for him and went downstairs. My husband was with us, using the transmitter radio to keep in touch as we had lost power by that time.
"However, he couldnﾒt resist running upstairs and reported hearing the screaming winds. I didnﾒt want to be left out, so I took a quick turn to poke my head out of the back door. And, yes, it does sound like you are beside the railroad tracks as a freight train passes in front of you. Because railroad tracks bi-sect the city, we occasionally heard trains even as far south as we lived, but nothing like this. Our concern, as I remember, was as to how long it was going to last.
"Our neighbors had little damage, as our trees and shrubs were all young and small. The inconvenience of being without electricity was the worst, but I cannot recall for how long. Phone service for us was quickly restored. It was only later when we were allowed to enter the 'storm zone' in the northern part of the city did we realize how fortunate we had been." --- New Ulm, Minn.
Posted by: nws on 5/10/2007 at 11:44 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
The cupboard door was gone
"I was almost 20 years old in June of 1957, earning money for college by working at the caf￩ in the Greyhound Bus depot. I was rooming on 3rd Avenue and 11 Street south. I remember the regular coffee customers stating for a day or so before the tornado that the nights werenﾒt cooling off as they normally did in North Dakota.
"It was still about 80 degrees when we were done working after the last bus of the evening came through, which was midnight or 1 am. I was working a split shift which meant that I was to return to work about 9:30 p.m. I was at home when my aunt came by saying that she and who she was with were going to look at a tornado that was supposed to be at Casselton. My other aunt, uncle and their youngest son decided we would go too.
"My uncle drove to 13th Street (now University Drive) and as we got there, that big black and gray cloud was coming. It was churning and boiling, and it started to sound like a train. My uncle took one look and said, 'We are going home to the basement', and drove very quickly back to the house. My cousin and I spent the few minutes that it took to pass in the vegetable bin which had cement on three sides. With my aunt and uncle sitting in the doorway. The air was very still, and the cloud had a greenish color to it. After the tornado passed, we took a drive down 10th Street north. The house that they had been looking at to purchase was gone. Not even a stick was left. Later touring the Golden Ridge area what impressed me was that the wall to a kitchen in one home was gone. The cupboard door was gone, but the cups were hanging on cup hangers and dishes were just as they had been put away into it." --- Oakes, N.D.
Posted by: nws on 5/10/2007 at 11:43 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
I am the father of the miracle baby
"I am the father of the miracle baby. I came home from work and we went to Oak Grove Park for a picnic around 6 p.m. We got there and were ready to eat when the cops came and said a large tornado is hitting West Fargo and that we had to evacuate. We then started to head home.
"The tornado was coming right towards us, as we saw roofs getting blown off and trees falling. We could not outrun the tornado in the car, so my wife and I got out of the car to seek shelter in a ditch, as that is what we were told to do in such an emergency. I got into the ditch on the driver's side of the car, holding my young daughter, and I laid on top of her in the ditch. My wife was holding our 7-month old son, and she placed him under her dress in the ditch on the other side of the car.
"When the tornado passed over us, it was total chaos and debris was flying into us and the wind was very strong. The wind then calmed down in the eye of the tornado, before increasing again rapidly as the other side passed through. This lasted for about one to two minutes, although it seemed like an eternity. When we climbed from the ditch, our car was carried two blocks and dropped in a clump of trees.
"Our daughter was OK, but our son was missing, and we searched frantically from him. We went to a house nearby. My wife had lost her glasses as well and could not see anything. My wife and I were taken to separate hospitals and someone found our son in a ditch two to three hours later and then he was brought to another hospital separate from me and my wife. I knew someone who worked at WDAY, and they told me around midnight that they thought they had found my son and he was OK. They performed many surgeries on him that night, and he survived and is doing well to this day. He walks with a slight limp on his left leg to this day, but he is a small guy at 6 foot 3 and 240 pounds. About three days later I went back to our picnic site one mile south of where we were hit and found all of our food and other items in tact and not touched in the park. The tornado had spared the park after all." --- Jerry Davenport, Cass Lake , Minn. and Phoenix, Ariz. (during winter)
Posted by: nws on 5/10/2007 at 11:42 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
The electricity went out for several days
"We lived at 2105 9 ﾽ St. N. I was in my backyard in my small garden, and it got very eerie and still. We turned on the radio and heard Dewey Bergquist announcing that the tornado was coming, so we went to the basement.
"The electricity went out for several days, and we had to heat up our baby formula with candles while we had no power. We did not see the tornado as we were in the basement. There was no damage to our house. We saw a guy carrying a cash register out of a small grocery store, as there were looters. My husband was with the Air National Guard and was called to duty shortly after the tornado blew through. My husband saw the tornado when it was going through fairgrounds south of us." --- Fargo, N.D.
Posted by: nws on 5/10/2007 at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
That night was my 36 birthday
"I am the mother of the six children who lost their life in 1957. That night was my 36th birthday and they were planning a little surprise party. That was the first night I ask off from my job, but the man to relieve me was a half hour late. I was speaking with my 16-year-old daughter when the phone went dead. We did not have a basement in our house, and it was totally destroyed in the Golden Ridge area. Every birthday and each and every Christmas is hard on me. I am now 85 years old. My son that survived was baby-sitting down the street for four little children and was saved. Thank god for that. I had one left. Every Memorial Day we come home to take care of the childrenﾒs graves in Moorhead. In 1965, Leroy, my surviving son, married Connie Mae. They have 2 sons and 3 grand children. I live in an apartment by myself. God takes the prettiest flowers first." --- Mercedes Munson-Ericson, Audubon, Minn.
Posted by: nws on 5/10/2007 at 11:26 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink
Saw the Golden Ridge area and it was devastated
"I observed the tornado on the news as it was coming towards us. A black cloud came down, so we drove north on 75 to get away from tornado. We were in Pierce trailor court in Moorhead, Minn. The tornado hit American Crystal, and we saw white rope in the field beside them before it weakened. My sister-in-law and husband lived north of Shanley. We saw the Golden Ridge area and it was devastated." --- Moorhead, Minn.
Posted by: nws on 5/10/2007 at 11:26 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
I was hopping through the dining room on one foot because I could not get one leg into my pajamas
"On June 20, 1957, I was 8 years old. My family lived at 1522 7th St. N. It had been a warm and humid day very much the same as the day before, however, it ended very differently. My dad was out of town at a convention. My mother had not let me go to the pool again that day because she was aware of the possibility of a storm. She had had the radio on during the day but I did not listen to what they were saying about the weather. We had played in the yard all day and dinner had been a little earlier than usual.
"My younger brother and sisters had taken their baths. I would say it was about 6:30 when I was told to come in from the porch to take mine. I remember the sky was a gray-green color and it just felt different outside. Shortly after I got in the tub, my mother came into the bathroom and said to get to the basement quickly. She threw a towel over my back as I trying to pull my pajama bottoms on. I was hopping through the dining room on one foot because I could not get one leg into my pajamas.
"I reached the basement stairs as I got my top on. I went down the first three stairs and turned to continue down the rest of the way as I became aware of a loud, roaring sound. It sounded like a freight train was coming into the house. The next thing I knew I was standing in the basement looking up at my mother and baby sister. I had not touched any of the stairs, yet I was standing in the basement. Iﾒm still not sure what happened. My mother came down the stairs very fast and we went over to sit down on a blanket with my brother and sister. We just kind of huddled together with my mother very calmly reassured her four frightened children. Whether the tornado went right over our house is not clear to me but it had to be very close. It was very noisy and black outside. You could hear things hit the house. The whole thing did not last long, than it was still and quiet. Once upstairs, we looked out the windows to see what had happened. Our yard was covered in debris and we could see the neighbors were starting to check their homes for damage.
"Our house had one window broken and some shingles were bent up. We were lucky. Since the phones did not work we had no way of knowing if my aunt and cousin were all right. Since my uncle was also out of town my mother decided we needed to check on them. My mother pushed the three younger children in the buggy and I walked along side toward NDSU. There were a lot of damaged and destroyed homes as we made our way toward my auntﾒs house. Lots of trees and power lines were down and other debris that we had to go around so what was normally a short walk took a while. They were both fine and grateful to see us. The next day I rode my bike all over looking at the damage. I remember the only thing left of a classmateﾒs house was her bed with a stuffed animal on it. My school, which I had always called Big Ben, was also damaged. Today, I believe it is Ben Franklin Middle School.
"The aftermath of the tornado remains very vivid; trees with leaves blown off or had been knocked down on the ground, car turned over, homes that were completely gone, and all the other debris scattered around. My dad and uncle both had to show IDﾒs to get back into Fargo. To this day, I pay close attention to the weather and go to the basement when there are tornado warnings issued." --- Lacrosse, Wis.
Posted by: nws on 5/10/2007 at 10:34 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
The support after the tornado was amazing
"I saw the tornado as I was visiting brother in Hawley, Minn. near highway 10. When I got to Fargo, people were running all over trying to figure out what was going on. There were no plans in place for a disaster of this magnitude, so many of the recovery efforts were done on the fly.
I was co-disaster chairmain for the Red Cross for 25 to 28 years. I started the feeding center by 11:30 p.m. at Plymouth Congregational Church and worked for six weeks straight, nearly 20 hours per day for the first week. We set up 15 to 18 feeding centers throughout Fargo with many donations. The recovery was challenging but very rewarding. Menonites came down about five to six days after the tornado with chainsaws and helped cut up trees. It was a mammoth cleanup operation. People volunteered from all over Fargo and the surrounding communities. The support was amazing and everyone wanted to help and came up to me asking, 'What can I do to help?' The support from everyone was unreal." --- Jon Welton, Moorhead, Minn.
Posted by: nws on 5/10/2007 at 10:25 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
I was caddying at the Moorhead Country Club when the tornado hit
"At the time of the Fargo tornado I was 12 years old. Living in Moorhead at the time, I happened to be caddying at the Moorhead country club the day of the tornado. On that day the temperature was moderate but I remember it being very muggy. That evening a gentleman and myself were trying to complete the ninth hole and it became very dark and calm. We noticed most of the golfers and caddies heading for the clubhouse. The man I was caddying for kept on playing and didnﾒt seem to be very concerned. We anticipated something about to happen and headed for the clubhouse.
"The dark clouds were whirling around and the wind was blowing very st