Powerful thunderstorms rolling across the Upper Midwest destroyed a small-town city hall in South Dakota and flooded people out of their homes early Wednesday in North Dakota. One man was missing after flooding in Minnesota.
Wind gusted to 92 mph during the night in north-central South Dakota, destroying the one-story city hall in Onaka, flattening a farm cooperative building in Faulkton and damaging other buildings, said Faulk County Emergency Manager Wayne Vetter.
No injuries were reported.
The damage wasn’t caused by a tornado, he said. “There was nothing that was swirled around. It was just all flattened, leveled,” Vetter said.
Elsewhere in South Dakota, however, the National Weather Service said a tornado briefly touched down Tuesday in Fall River County, in the state’s southwest corner, damaging farm machinery. Hail nearly 3 inches in diameter was reported in Meade County.
In North Dakota, flooding forced residents to evacuate about 15 homes during the night in the town of Edgeley.
“Firefighters went door to door, getting people out,” said Rick Ballinger, the LaMoure County’s emergency manager. The town of around 650 people got about 4 inches of rain, he said.
About a 10-block area was flooded. National Guard members set up cots for some of the evacuees.
Waves of storms also battered Minnesota, Iowa and western Wisconsin.
One man was missing Wednesday in southeastern Minnesota after his pickup was found washed off a road near Wanamingo. Goodhue County Emergency Management Director Gary Fried said several rural highways were closed, and crews had stacked sandbags in low areas of downtown Zumbrota.
In the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, more than 94,000 Excel Energy customers were without power at midmorning Wednesday and there was minor flooding in outlying areas, officials said.
At least tornado touched down Tuesday in Wisconsin, damaging trees and power lines.
In North Dakota, most of the roof was ripped off a home south of Bismarck.
“God gave us a beautiful skylight,” Dawn Thompson said. “I’ve lived in North Dakota all my life and I’ve never seen anything like this. I can see airplanes flying over.”
