News Cut Category Archive: Weather

You can fight it, but winter always wins. You might as well embrace it.

Take these lads at Chicago's Soldier Field on Monday night:

The temperature was near zero in Chicago as Vikings fans wondered whether the Packers could help them to the playoffs by beating the Bears. I, on the other hand, found myself wondering why we don't hear more about emergency room cases of people with frostbitten chests.

I, on the other hand, spent the evening making ice lanterns. Several Current listeners sent me tips on how to make them. In the end, I chickened out and just bought a mold.

Let's see south Florida top that!

The floor is open for your tips on how to enjoy winter.

Rachel Knudson of Heartland, Minn., has sent along a lovely photograph. " I took this photo off the very snowy balcony of my farmhouse. The picture is looking to the southeast across a field where you can see the drifts and the blowing snow of this weekend's snowstorm. In the branches of the trees in the upper right you can see a snowdog reflecting in the blowing snow.," she said.

Seriously, Florida, aren't you a little jealous?

Oh great, it's going to snow again. I'm not against snow, per se. In fact, I like the stuff. I also would take the freezing-cold weather before the 100-degree, high-humidity, not-a-breath-of-a-breeze August day. What I detest -- almost violently, I've noticed -- is the sudden inability of Minnesota drivers to know what to do in it. This latest blizzard -- up to an inch is predicted before it all ends -- looks timed to mess up tomorrow morning's commute.

I can't explain what's happened to us but something has happened to us. On three-lane highways (yes, I'm talking about you, I-94), people drive slow in the "high-speed" lane, the middle lane, and the right-hand lane even though, as was the case earlier this week, the tire lanes were clear. Why didn't they move over and eliminate the rolling blockade? Because they would've had to go through an inch of slush separating the lanes. The situation recalls a favorite expression of a former colleague that might fit the winter-time in Minnesota meteorological discussions at the water cooler: "it's not the heat, it's the stupidity."

Meanwhile, in Boston, it's going to snow again and a Web site there has developed a wonderful new "alert system" : The French Toast Alert System. Surely there's a way we can steal that idea. Perhaps we can use walleye?

The Current's Barb Abney asked me a question a few minutes ago for which I had no answer.

Is the Minneapolis no-idling law in effect when it's cold as all getout?

Yes and no, the News Cut research department reports. The law, which bans vehicles from idling for longer than 3 minutes, carries this get-out-jail free card:

There are exceptions to the three minute idling restriction for cars and most other gas or diesel powered vehicles.

1. Vehicles may idle when stopped in traffic.

2. Police, fire, ambulance, public safety or other City vehicles may remain running to operate lights, circulate water in tanks or maintain accessories needed during emergency or enforcement activities.

3. Police K9 or Animal Control vehicles may remain running to maintain a safe climate for animals.

4. City vehicles may remain running at job sites during inclement weather if a supervisor grants authorization.

5. Idling is allowed to diagnose repair needs.

6. Idling is allowed if needed to operate defrosters, heaters or air conditioners to prevent a safety or health emergency.

7. Vehicles may idle up to 15 minutes in a one hour period if the outside air temperature is less than zero degrees or higher than 90 degrees.

One might argue that #6 would trump #7 and allow unrestricted idling.

Jeremy Breiner of Alpha, Minn., sent this picture along this morning. Alpha is in southwest Minnesota along the Iowa border. It's actually a picture he took in 2007 at sunset. But, like the pictures our news team are assembling of the weekend blizzard, it's a reminder of the beauty of desolation.

Weather pictures, in particular, are like that. The natural occurrence that can lead to misery, is -- at the same time -- beautiful. Take this picture for instance.

This is from southern New Hampshire where an ice storm has caused plenty of misery in the northeast, and yet, it's beautiful in a Raiders of the Lost Ark ("don't look at it or your face with melt") kind of way.

(Photo by Getty Images)

My sister sent this picture to me this morning.

It's from north central Massachusetts. She and her husband hauled a generator down from Maine to my elderly mother's house, and also rescued my disabled brother from his powerless mobile home. They were without heat and power for 50 hours.

From the sound of things, there's really no point travelling in northern and northwestern Minnesota today. Highway 10 has been closed between Detroit Lakes and Moorhead. I-94 is closed in Moorhead. Here's the road report for that area.

Locally, at last check, delays at the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport are less than 15 minutes. Northwest is allowing rebooking without penalty.

Dogs fed? Check. Ice house on the favorite spot? Check. Snow sleds gassed up? Check. OK, from what I could tell this afternoon, Ely is ready for the big snowstorm. We'll be looking for photos from northern and western Minnesota once things start, so kindly send them along.

Sure enough, the UMD Bulldogs football team heads to Alabama for the NCAA Division II championship game and what do they get?

Snow.

It shouldn't bother them, though. Most of the kids figure to be ice-hardened alums of the Minnesota and Wisconsin gridirons.

Still, I have to imagine that a few of the Mighty Mutts were hoping for a reprieve from the cold. They should get it.

Game day figures to be partly sunny, with a high near 53 degrees according to the National Weather Service.

"Say the word 'snow' down here, and people panic," North Alabama senior Adam White said. "But in the summer we have tornado warnings two or three times a week, and people just blow that off because we're used to it."

Then again, a little snow might be an advantage against Northwest Missouri State.

(Photo by Brett Groehler / Minnesota Duluth for the Duluth News Tribune)

The snow is falling and so is the sky! We're having our first major snowstorm of the year. We interrupt this blog post for this important announcement: Minnesotans are not fazed by the weather.

And it's time for Sningo!

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Feel free to post any instances of the above in the official Sningo comments section below. Also, you can follow the storm on MPR's Updraft blog.

Update 4:52 p.m. - We have our first photo of us being unfazed of the winter season. This is on some side streets -- side streets! -- outside the News Cut World Headquarters. Note the way we have adjusted into gridlock without having to relearn this from last year. That person walking will be home before any of them.

I'd love to have your pictures of an autumn weekend in Minnesota, where the fall colors are said to be at their peak. Send them in, please. I'll organize them and present them just as soon as I finish raking.

You'll also find some gorgeous pictures on the Department of Natural Resources Fall Colors page.

The remnants of Hurricane Ike hit Minnesota today. Fifty-nine dogs who were abandoned or otherwise made homeless by the hurricane along the Gulf Coast arrived in the Twin Cities this morning and will be put up for adoption in a few weeks. Another 60 will probably arrive next week. Northwest Airlines has donated the space to fly them here.

Laurie Brickley, a spokeswoman for the Animal Humane Society, told me this afternoon that a few weeks ago a team from the Society headed to Texas to help with wildlife in the aftermath of the hurricane. "They were approached by a woman who runs a shelter who said, 'I've got 200 dogs and I'm at my wit's end. There's no power and we're living in tents.'"

Thus, the airlift was born. Minnesota has one of the five largest Human Societies in the country.

"They (the Gulf Coast) don't have the cat overpopulation in that area that we do here," according to Brickley. "They have a dog overpopulation and we don't."

The dogs will be checked for temperament, sterilized, and microchips will be implanted. "They look really healthy," she said.

"Is the clock ticking on these dogs?" I asked.

"Absolutely not," Brickley said. "It's one of the biggest misnomers out there." The Humane Society keeps the dogs until they're adopted. They're not euthanized.

When the dogs are ready for adoption, pictures of the dogs will be posted on the Society's Web site and it'll be noted that they're "Hurricane Ike dogs."

Not directly related but still interesting: This video of a rescue crew during Hurricane Ike, rescuing a dog.

Hurricane Ike has come ashore in Texas and done its thing. Now, the rest of the country waits for answers for two questions: (1) Is everybody OK? and (2) Will the price of gasoline go up?

The largest oil refinery on the continent is in Galveston and it's shut down. Later today, inspectors will take a look at it to see how soon it can be restarted.

The Oil Drum Web site has been trying to estimate the effect at the pump based on the shutdown and damage. It has a Flash map which shows Ike's path, and what was in its way. The red area below shows area of damage.

All of the icons are some facet of the oil infrastructure. The area produces 6 percent of the world supply.

The Twin Cities' gas prices are already heading up, according to twincitiesgasprices.com -- about 3.5 cents locally since Friday and about 8 cents nationally.

Update It appears the major gas stations have increased prices 30-40 cents a gallon today.

It's worse in other parts of the country where drivers rushed to fill up their cars, figuring there'd be a gasoline shortage.
Some gas stations in the southeast raised their prices by more than $1 a gallon, although much of that was because of the panic more so than the law of supply and demand.

Until the wind and the fear subsides, we won't know for sure how much Ike is going to hurt.

In the meantime, hurricanetrack.com is an excellent resource for following Ike. This webcam is mounted in an SUV patrolling the region.

Randy Fischer of Fergus Falls sends along this snapshot -- taken on Saturday in Texas.
"Ringdahl EMS strike team in Texas assisting with emergency medical needs and medical evacuations. Five ambulances from Ringdahl EMS sites in Fergus Falls, MN, Pelican Rapids, MN, Jamestown, ND, and Lisbon, ND were sent to Texas along with 15 medical personnel, support truck and disaster trailer."

Hurricane Gustav has everyone's attention today.

Says a release from the EMS firm:

In an effort to position emergency vehicles and respond to health, medical and ambulance needs in the Gulf states, Ringdahl EMS was placed on "standby" alert last Thursday morning at 7:00 am for possible deployment of a strike team. At 7:10 PM Thursday evening Ringdahl EMS, under contract with American Medical Response (AMR) was notified to mobilize their strike team. A "strike team" consists of five advanced life support (ALS) ambulances and 22 emergency personnel, according to Randy Fischer, Operations Director for Ringdahl EMS. Fischer said, "the crew was ready to go within hours of call-up, and left for San Antonio, TX late Thursday evening. They arrived and have since been reassigned to Beaumont, TX for evacuation assistance at hospitals in the area. They may be assigned for up to 30 days to various disaster response locations. The crews will stay at their assigned location prior to hurricane Gustav hitting the gulf, and will take shelter and respond to emergency medi cal needs as assigned. "

Here's a tip: If you get up at 5 in the morning to drive to Rushford, Minn., for a look at how the town has fared since a devastating flash flood a year ago, make sure you check your calendar to make sure you're doing so on the right day. Ask me how I know.

It turns out my appointments with some fine folks for a tour of the town are tomorrow.

No matter. It's a nice town and a beautiful area and I'll be happy to go back again on Friday.

In the meantime, I had the opportunity to look around today. If you want to have a flash flood, Rushford is the perfect place to have it. It sits at the bottom of several hills, and while you wouldn't think Rush Creek would be a threat to the town...

... it most certainly was a threat back on August 18, 2007 when a flash flood killed six people in Southeast Minnesota.

The town still needs help, but help has pretty much run out. The volunteers that are left are soon going to pull out. On Saturday, the town will thank the volunteers who helped put the town back together.

It's not hard to figure out where the flood waters swept through. Look for either a new home, a FEMA trailer, or an empty lot...

Construction boomed during the spring, but has tapered off now. Tomorrow afternoon, I'll give you a little multimedia guided tour of the community.

We'd love to have your pictures of any weather phenomena in your region. Send them to me here.

9:52 p.m. - Via Twitter, hearing of some power outages in St. Paul.

9:33 p.m. West Central Tribune in Willmar has the story of a couple who survived. Also features an unbelievable image. (May require registration). Here's the large photo. Isn't that something?

9:32 p.m. - Warnings should be going up for the Rochester area shortly, as well as Austin and Albert Lea.

9:30 p.m. Air temperature dropped from 84 to 68 with the storm's passage.

9:20 p.m. The storm has now mostly passed the Twin Cities. But there's still a trail to the southwest. It's just clearing Mankato. Resume the party in Mankato, folks. A Twitter post from @PrinceJvstin says:

Very nasty trip back from my friend's Condo in Bloomington up to Circle Pines. Heavy wind, rain, a bit of hail.

9:05 p.m. - Rain in Woodbury but thunder is obviously north. Lights flickering. But so far, I'm not too impressed. Dish Network signal just went out because of rain interference. So long, Belinda!

9:04 p.m. - Matthew Foster has sent an image of the storm hitting Lowry Hill East, near the Walker in Minneapolis.

8:57 p.m. - I almost never want to work for a TV station. The exception is when I'm looking for photos from the audience. People think TV first and only during those times. Enough of that. Here's KARE-11's photo gallery from Willmar.

8:47 p.m. The severe thunderstorm warning for the next half hour or so has now been issued for Chisago County, northeast Washington County, and Polk County in Wisconsin. So far the Woodbury bureau of News Cut is escaping this mess.

8:37 p.m. - Second verse, same as the first for Goodhue and Rice County. Severe thunderstorm warning for the next half hour or so.

8:34 p.m. - St. Croix County Wisconsin has a severe thunderstorm warning until 9 p.m.

8:24 p.m. -- KSTP and KARE 11 are wall-to-wall. WCCO sticking with CBS programming for now.

8:21 p.m. - Scott and Le Sueur County, you're next. A severe thunderstorm warning has just been posted.

8:19 p.m. - Severe thunderstorm warning posted for Western Carver County and Eastern Sibley County.

8:11 p.m. Associated Press quoted West Central Tribune newspaper. The tornado hit a farm. Also caused heavy damage on the south side of Willmar. Severe thunderstorm warning just posted for the area around Gaylord and Norwood Young America.

7:50 p.m. MPR's Than Tibbets, who operates out of Moorhead, just sent this picture from the Thursday night storm.

7:46 p.m. - Mamatus clouds arrive in Twin Cities.

7:41 p.m. - Updated damage info (thanks to Paul Huttner)

Waite Park [Stearns Co, MN] trained spotter reports TSTM WND DMG at 07:20 PM CDT -- power lines toppled, multiple trees downed.

Sw Little Falls [Morrison Co, MN] trained spotter reports TSTM WND GST of M62 MPH at 06:53 PM CDT -- 62 mph gust recorded with dozens of trees down in vicinity.

4 Nne Hutchinson [Mcleod Co, MN] mesonet reports TSTM WND GST of E62 MPH 07:26 PM CDT -- 62 mph wind gust measured at hook lake rd.

7:30 p.m. - Severe thunderstorm warning around Hutchinson area.

7:25 p.m. - Severe thunderstorm warning posted for Wright County. Stockholm is specifically mentioned.

7:20 p.m. The weather radio pops off for the first time tonight to tell me -- and you -- that the storms are bearing down on Foley, Waverly, Becker, and Fosston. Winds near 70.

7:07 p.m. Paul Huttner reports two houses have been heavily damaged in Willmar:

MPX: 4 Se Willmar [Kandiyohi Co, MN] law enforcement reports TORNADO at 06:45 PM CDT -- 2 houses heavily damaged on sw 26th ave near 40th st se. (7:04:23 PM) iembot: MPX: Se Willmar [Kandiyohi Co, MN] trained spotter reports TORNADO at 06:32 PM CDT -- near intersection of county road 8 and 19.

7:02 p.m. Looks like we're in for a wild ride tonight. Several tornadoes have already been reported in the region. MPR meteorologist Paul Huttner has already sent along one damage report:

MPX: 1 S Willmar [Kandiyohi Co, MN] trained spotter reports TSTM WND DMG at 06:46 PM CDT -- shed flattened. small trailor turned on its side. several farm tractors turned on their sides. occurred at 23171 s. wilmar road and county rd. 19. damage resulted from tornado.

At the moment it looks like this initial band is going to slide north of the Twin Cities. But it doesn't look like the folks up at the cabin in northwest Wisconsin are going to have much fun this evening.

There's certainly a Minnesota flavor to flood recovery efforts in Cedar Rapids.

According to a news release today from the Hennepin County sheriff and the Minneapolis Police Department:

In the early evening of Saturday June 14th Chief Greg Graham of the Cedar Rapids Police Department placed a personal call to Chief Dolan asking for whatever law enforcement resources the City could provide. Chief Dolan immediately committed one Lieutenant, two Sergeants and six officers to respond. Sheriff Stanek also committed an initial 10 deputies and supervisors. By 1 a.m. Sunday MPD Deputy Chief of Patrol Rob Allen was in Cedar Rapids coordinating our response. By 12 p.m. Sunday the Minneapolis and Hennepin County Sheriff's initial response teams were at work in Cedar Rapids. The officers and deputies are working in areas of Cedar Rapids where the flood waters are receding to allow residents to return to their homes on a limited basis. Our personnel are working to prevent theft and other crimes in those areas.

The Minneapolis police chief also authorized another 20 officers and Stanek, the sheriff, authorized another 10 deputies. Since the Cedar Rapids police department communications center is underwater, the locals ("our" locals) are sending down a mobile command post, too.

Meanwhile, according to the Twin Cities Red Cross, 11 area volunteers have been dispatched to assist in flood efforts in the Upper Midwest.

Finally, images of the flooding in southeast Minnesota are emerging. The Winona Daily News this afternoon has an excellent slideshow of images along the Root River. Up to now, for some reason, images in the area around Lanesboro have been hard to come by.

If you have any you'd like to share, send them along here.

Meanwhile, in Iowa, things are even worse as these images from Getty Images show.

Also find some intriguing pictures of the Iowa flooding on the Gazzetteonline Web site (Hat tip: News Cut reader Joel Federer)

At least one death is reported on the flooding in Minnesota. County Highway 34 in Albert Lea was washed out and one car was washed away. Rescuers recovered a person -- alive -- from a car, but then the driver reported his/her car was actually atop another.

There's more serious weather in the region tonight, so we're patrolling in search of tidbits.

9:39 a.m. -- Via Twitter, Twin Cities Red Cross reports three more disaster volunteers are heading for Iowa.

9:29 a.m. - Flooding in your area? How about taking a picture and sending it?

9:18 a.m. MPR listeners Mike Jorgenson and Kathy Draeger write:

We farm in Big Stone County Minnesota on the western edge of the state. We had flash floods here yesterday. 1/3 of our farm is still under water. Crops are lost.

SE Minnesota isn't the only place suffering from extreme rainfall events. Big Stone County saw the most flooding yesterday that this area has seen since the 1960s.

Our community is tuned in to MPR--Appleton station. Please keep our news in the news. pictures at Resettling Big Stone County .

8:59 a.m. -- Courtesy of MPR's Tom Weber, here's a link to the Sioux City Journal blog on the Boy Scout camp deaths. Solid information provided.

(Thurs) 8:12 a.m. -- Worthington Daily Globe has a few pictures of tornado damage at a farm near Fulda. The Rochester Post Bulletin has a single picture from Lanesboro flooding; kids in a youth mission group helping a family clean up a mess. Fillmore County has posted flood information here.

10:34 p.m. - Severe thunderstorm warnings dropped for western 'burbs. Looks like Twin Cities have been spared. Looks like the Wisconsin Dells are going to get hammered overnight, though.

10:33 p.m. - Looking back at the Old Farmer's Almanac prediction for Upper Midwest weather from last November to this October:

Summer temperatures will be near normal, on average, with much-below-normal rainfall.

It predicted rainfall here 2" below normal in June. Also it said June 7-17 would be "sunny and seasonable." How's that working out where you are?

Nice try.

10:29 p.m. - Rainfall so far today in St. Paul: .68" . Rainfall so far this month in Caledonia: 4.86". Average monthly rainfall for June in Caledonia: 1.38".

10:04 p.m. - WCCO viewer submitted an interesting "sideways" tornado picture near Sleep Eye. A very similar series of pictures, this time from Springfield, shows up on KARE Web site. The same person also submitted the images to KSTP. Clearly showing no favorites. Did I mention News Cut would love to get your weather photos? We're partial to pictures of bocce-ball sized hail.

9:59 p.m. - Twin Cities Red Cross Twitters (Tweets?) that they're standing by in case their services are needed. Three local volunteers were dispatched to the floods in Iowa today.

9:56 p.m. - Sound of thunder emanating from the cities hits the Woodbury bureau. Faithful dog gets "dryer sheeted." Again.

9:52 p.m. - Paul Douglas' blog says 1" hail in Carver County but no tornadic activity. Given all the hubbub when Douglas was fired at WCCO, does anyone else find it odd that nobody ever seems to comment on the blog and when someone does and asks a question, Paul never responds? Oh, and I still don't "get" what I'm looking at when I look at the graphics.

9:40 p.m. - What would it take to cause flash flooding in the Twin Cities? According to the National Weather Service, about 3 inches of rain over a 6-hour period ought to do it.

9:36 p.m. -- Storms are moving into the western 'burbs. A tornado watch is up, a severe thunderstorm warning is up, too. See the National Weather Service Twin Cities page. And we're going to get some heavy rain.

9:34 p.m. -- Fulda, Jefferson, Sleepy Eye have all reported tornado spottings this evening, but the most distressing news is coming out of western Iowa where a Boy Scout camp apparently was hit by a tornado. At last report, four are dead and 40 hurt.

It's raining -- again -- in the Twin Cities and we're near ready to throw in the towel and declare the summer is going to be a lost cause. Too bad. Resorters, for example, had a chance to have a great year thanks to the high gas prices keeping people "close to home." But, perhaps, people will decide it's cheaper to watch the rain fall from the homestead than a couple of hundred miles away.

In Wisconsin, though, it's even worse. On Lake Delton, resorters have a real problem. Their lake is gone... and so are some of the houses on it. Would-be guests have been canceling their reservations because a lake without water is merely a quarry.

It's not just tourists who are being affected by the weather. On America's largest sewer the Mississippi River, barge operators are preparing for delays because of flooding. Flooding... like what's happening in Iowa. (Really good pictures from Decorah here.)

Meanwhile, the inbox reveals a fascinating series of pictures today. The rain and thunderstorms that look so cruddy here on terra firma, look pretty nifty from above.

(H/T: Michael Wells)

A News Cut reader, specially imported from the state of Wisconsin, picks up on my riff last week about why Twin Citians are so quick to ignore Wisconsin. It's 18 miles away as the crow flies but we'll pay attention a story 200 miles away before we'll pay attention to what's going on "over there" on a daily basis.

"Look, Bob, there was bad weather in Wisconsin! Before this weekend, even." she writes.

She's right, sending along the link to the New Richmond News, which details stories of damage on the old sod at the same time a tornado was ripping up Hugo.

(Latest up top)

This is certainly one of the most hyped weather events in the region since last December's first snowstorm of the year.

2:21 p.m. - The danger has now passed, so this will be the last post in the topic. Here's the National Weather Service look at the storm. Highest rainfall amount seems to be about 1 1/2" in St. Cloud.

Most of the damage in the Twin Cities -- and there wasn't much -- was from the wind. Panels from the News Cut World Headquarters in St. Paul came loose, prompting the closing of Cedar Street, expertly handled enough police officers to also nab the occasional felon on the run, should one walk by.

12:08 p.m. - Says City-Data.com:

Hubbard County historical area-adjusted tornado activity is significantly below Minnesota state average. It is 15.2 times below overall U.S. average.

Meanwhile, one woman writes to us:

Two of my children are on a 4-H camp outing to Northern Pines Camp near Park Rapids. When I heard reports on MPR of tornado damage near there I called camp out of concern. When I spoke to the 4-H staff person with the kids they were in the storm shelter singing songs and playing games by flashlight as they had no electricity. They were all safe. They were aware of tornado activity both north and south of camp with damage estimated to be about 5 miles from camp. Thank you for alerting me to severe weather in the area where they are camping.

10:38 a.m. - Tornado -- or tornadoes -- spotted in Hubbard County. MPR's Tom Robertson is heading there.

7:26 a.m. - High winds knocked down trees in southeast Minnesota, but no significant damage is reported.

11:31 Sump pump? Check. Doors locked? Check. Dog? Check. Check of WCCO's Good Question in search of possible mention of News Cut? Check. Over and out unless things kick into a higher gear in the early morning.

11:17 p.m. - Watching the big red splotch move up from Iowa, crossing I-35 and heading for SE Minn, and I'm thinking of the people in the Rushford area.

10:38 p.m. - Tornado watch. A whole lot of watchin' going on this evening. This watch is until 5 a.m. for : Carver Dakota Dodge Fillmore Freeborn GoodhueHennepin Houston Le Sueur McLeod Mower Olmsted Ramsey Rice Scott Sibley Steele Wabasha
Waseca Washington Winona counties.

and in Wisconsin: Buffalo, Chippewa, Clark, Crawford, Dunn, Eau Claire, Grant, Jackson, La Crosse, Monroe, Pepin, Pierce, Richland, St. Croix, Taylor, Trempealeau, and Vernon.

Another big line of storms -- after a break -- is just hitting I-90, heading north, just to the west of I-35. Should be getting noisy in Austin and Albert Lea soon.

10:25 p.m. - Gate holds and taxi delays at the airport are running 15-29 minutes behind. FAA says the delays are decreasing. I spot checked several flights that were due to arrive during the middle of the evening and they were running about an hour behind schedule.

8:59 p.m. - Dryer sheet/scared dog experiment update. Dog wiped down with Bounce sheet. Dog is the most unnerved in a storm, ever and a thunderstorm just rolled through Woodbury. Mythbuster verdict: Fact! Many thanks to the Current listener who passed along the tip.

8:54 p.m. - St. Cloud Times reporting 3,421 Xcel customers are without power. How are they going to power the sump pumps?

8:50 p.m. - Who among you has a rain gauge? Let's hear what you've got.

8:48 p.m. National Weather Service/Twin Cities storm report shows the path of hail.

8:44 p.m. Paul Douglas' blog says some 3/4" hail has been spotted in SW 'burbs. But no tornado activity. His graphics are positively gobbledygook to me.

8:34 p.m. Most shameful newspaper weather headline of the day comes from the Wichita Eagle. "Last time it looked like this, 22 died." It's based on some weather data from 1974.

So far there have been some tornadoes spotted in Kansas but the only incidents reported are that some circus elephants got spooked. So the next time it "looks like this," does the headline read, "Last time it looked like this some circus elephants got spooked?" The readers are letting the paper have it in the comments section.

5:50 p.m. - Paul Huttner tells Tom Crann a tornado watch is up for tornado alley... the SW Minn/NW Iowa/SE South Dakota region until 1 a.m.

5:46 p.m. - Ready to transfer to News Cut Bunker in Woodbury to monitor the situation. If you listen to the Current, perhaps you know Mary Lucia and I have been considering the assertion that rubbing your dog with dryer sheets will ease his/her anxiety during storms. I've been trying it and while the dog is still scared to death, in recent storms he hasn't been so bad. This animal hospital Web site gives some credence to this. So does this one.

5:39 p.m. - "Not done yet by a long shot," Paul Huttner says to ATC producer Jeff Jones. He says tornado watch may be posted later for NW Iowa and that system could move into Minn. and the Twin Cities later tonight. Still, some of the natives are getting restless.

5:05 p.m. - A question to ponder while waiting for something to happen... or not: Wisconsin is only 18 miles from downtown St. Paul. So why do we think of a storm as "gone" once it leaves the geographic boundary? Hugo, by contrast, is also 18 miles from downtown St. Paul, yet we don't consider weather as "gone" when it hits Hugo? Hastings is 20 miles away. That's still considered "us." Why isn't Hudson considered "us"?

5:03 p.m. Quiet. Too quiet. Overblown-media-frenzy quiet.

4:54 p.m. "Get your cars in the garage," blares the Star Tribune. Hail, you know. I admit to still be impressed by the pictures of damages in the paper Sunday at used car lots and by learning there's a company that dispatches teams to fix them and it will take months. Browsing the 'net, we learn that it costs about $1,000 to fix "severe" (61-80 dents) half-dollar-sized hail dents. Interesting pictures from a body shop in Colorado here, although I think the damage caused by a bear attack on that same page is even more interesting.

And how do you know you may have hail damage on your asphalt shingle roof? Check the vents, this document from Canada says. Also features an interesting take on how some of the "stormchaser" companies fake the damage.

4:51 p.m. - The Worthington Daily Globe is live blogging weather there, where there's flash flood possibilities. So far, the only evidence of pending disaster is the writer has a cold and has run out of Kleenex.

4:49 p.m. - Paul Huttner, MPR meteorologist, says storms will die down in next couple of hours, although central and northern Minnesota may be in for a busy night. Metro area severe thunderstorm warnings have expired.

4:46 p.m. - The first hail picture has arrived:

Thanks to Don Householder of Mound, who says he took this picture around 5 p.m. Got a picture or story you want to share? Send it to me.

4:41 p.m. Sirens reportedly went off in Minneapolis. Red Cross posted via Twitter that they were huddled in stairwells. No sirens in St. Paul although one person I'm following just posted, "Who else in St. Paul just saw the sky explode?"

This is the second of several posts. The first is here.

Dustin Sims grew up in Oklahoma and remembers a tornado hitting his grandparents' home -- twice. But when the sound of your own home coming apart at the seams serenades you as you huddle with your pregnant wife and two-year-old daughter, that's a unique experience, even for tornado veterans.

Dustin wrote me last week saying there were things he and his wife, Kelly, learned from the September 2006 tornado that struck Rogers, Minn., that can help the residents of Hugo, who are just now clearing the debris and beginning the reconstruction from last week's tornado.

Only seconds to get to safety, "You kind of sit there in the dark and the glass breaking, and you can hear this huge noise. It lasted about 45 seconds. You could hear the wind starting to creep up under the foundation. We sat there in the dark and we said, 'we're alive and breathing,'" Dustin told me Monday evening.

Then they got to work.

Their house was full of glass and pieces of somebody else's roof. A Frisbee embedded itself in a wall. Kelly found later that even pieces of debris had worked their way into the plastic sleeves of their photograph albums. The garage was gone. Putting on a jacket was useless; they were riveted with shards of glass. (Listen)

They grabbed pictures, financial records, and whatever clothes they could and escaped their now uninhabitable house.

They've learned the lessons they want to share with the residents of Hugo. Here's one, though, for everybody: Don't wait to come up with a plan. (Listen)

"Downstairs now we keep flashlights, a hammer, shoes, and cellphones," Dustin said. "Whenever a storm is coming through, we make sure that stuff is down in the basement where we're going to hide. We keep credit cards we'd need and when we go and hide, we've got everything we need to communicate with the outside world and at least fund ourselves to get to a hotel room so someone can help us."

In a small room downstairs (see picture) , the Sims have created a small bedroom, and selected its location as the least likely to collapse. When a tornado hit Parkersburg, Iowa 10 days ago, 7 people were killed; all were in their basements.

"The day after, we stopped by Menard's and picked up some brooms and plastic bags and we said, 'oh, well, we'll just clean it up,'" Kelly Sims said. "I think we were in a state of shock."

Another lesson: It takes more than brooms and plastic bags. That's when the insurance people showed up and gave them directions -- and money -- on how to clean up. Get a good insurance company, they told me. Theirs, American Family, got high marks from the Sims. "They were always here to give us help on what to do next," Kelly said.

What don't the people of Hugo know yet? "When we started out, we didn't understand the concept of the contractors, of who you're going to have to hire to rebuild your life. And that choice is very, very important," said Dustin. "You can make a bad choice right off the bat and make this whole recovery very miserable. The people who came to our house the first days were very shady people."

"They would show up and say, 'Here's a tarp and the only thing you have to do is sign this so we can get reimbursed by the insurance company," he said. The city of Hugo, at first, decided to require contractors be registered with the city, ostensibly to avoid a similar situation, but the credentialing requirement has since been rescinded, according to the city's Web site. (Listen)

The Sims recommend establishing a system to track finances and paperwork from all of the work that needs to be done. "Foster that relationship with them (insurance companies) right off the bat," Dustin said. "We established that trust with them and documented extensively. The ability to pass them the receipts in some sort of organized manner made everybody's life easier."

When it came to selecting a contractor, "we probably should've gone with a larger company that's used to building houses," Kelly said.

"We overtaxed our local builder," said Dustin. "He brought in quality people to rebuild our house. It was a struggle for him and he suffered because of that. We would probably go with a larger company that we're sure is going to be in business for the next 10 years."

Some residents in Rogers have been paralyzed by legal problems since the tornado. Subcontractors weren't paid by contractors and liens were placed on the homes. "We researched extensively about how to do this, and we put in the contract to rebuild our house that before he (the contractor) received any money, we had to have the mechanics lien in our possession, so that anybody that he hired, they had to sign off that they had been paid before he got paid."

It didn't hurt that Kelly, who, like Dustin, is an engineer at BAE Systems, has worked in law firms. She found pro bono legal advice on the Web, and also found trade associations for the building industry here were able to provide assistance. "That's why they say you pay the builder up to 80 percent done. We've heard some stories about people paying all the money up front and then they ask, 'Why isn't it getting done?'" (Listen)

When the Sims were looking for a place to live during the rebuilding of their home, they found property owners tried to increase the rent and deposits. "When they found out there's insurance involved, they tried to triple the prices on us, and sign a year lease," Dustin said. He said insurance companies will help with that, but you have to ask. "They (landlords) have you at an emotionally vulnerable time. After the first time it happened, we got mad about it. If they steal from my insurance company, they're stealing from me." (Listen)

By now, you know it's a good time to take a look at your insurance policy and home inventory, right?

The Sims also advise not to forget the kids. "Our little girl had a hard time with it. She still tells the story of the night her house got broke. And she'll line her stuffed animals up and tell them the story of the night her house got broke," said Dustin. "On the anniversary of the tornado, we took her to DisneyWorld, and we're trying to establish memories other than this. These people (in Hugo) are going to have to try to establish memories other than this tornado as soon as possible." (Listen)

And one final message from Rogers for Hugo: It'll get better.

This is the first of several posts this week on recovering from tornadoes.

September 2006

June 1, 2008

Christy Paulson of Rogers, Minn., was upstairs after putting her sons to bed, watching TV and not paying much attention to the darkening weather outside on September 16 2006. Her husband, TJ, knew a late summer storm was coming and, because he "always liked storms," he went downstairs to watch. (Listen)

"All of a sudden it hit pretty hard," TJ, told me Sunday afternoon, both sitting in the dining room of their home which was in the path of a tornado that destroyed several homes in the neighborhood and killed a girl a few doors down. "All of the furniture on the deck went across the deck and just flew off. That was about the same time we felt the house shaking and we said, 'OK, we've got to get to the basement.'" A 250 pound grill was launched off the deck and onto the back lawn.

"All of a sudden my ears plugged up," Christy said. "I jumped out of bed and he was already running up the stairs. We each ran to a different kid's bedroom. I could barely open my son's door. We ran down the stairs as fast as we could. "

"Right after we reached the bottom of the stairs," TJ continued," that's when the windows in the back of the house here blew out."

"That's when I thought we were toast; I thought we were never going to make it," Christy said.

Seconds later, by the time they reached the basement, it was over...

A second person has died as the result of the tornado in Hugo.

Sgt. Wayne Johnson of the Washington County Sheriff's Office says a woman in her 50s or 60s was cleaning up the remains of her house yesterday when "she walked out into the yard and called for help twice, and then just sat down and just fell backwards. So she was unconscious and not breathing at that time."

If that is considered by authorities as a storm casualty (I would so characterize it), it makes the tornado the first tornado in Minnesota since 1993, when two people were killed in a Littlefork tornado.

MPR's Tom Weber has paused in his coverage of the tornado in Hugo to tell you what it's like to cover a tornado.

Meanwhile, MPR's Paul Huttner passes along that the National Weather Service has now determined that the damage survey show a fourth tornado touched down near Marine on St. Croix and crossed into Wisconsin Sunday. It is rated EF0 and caused primarily tree damage.

Details are here.

The Salvation Army has posted some more photos of the damage from the tornado in Hugo on its Flickr photostream.

As we look at these and other images, it's impossible not to wonder what we would do if those were our homes? When you have to rebuild your lives, where do you even start?

The Red Cross, meanwhile, has updated its Hugo-themed Web site, including an interesting "Coping with Disaster" article that might be worth reading now, while things are fine.

The city of Hugo is looking for volunteers for a cleanup day on Saturday. Volunteers are asked to meet at the Washington County Service Center located off Highway 61, north of town. Bring work gloves.

Update 2:14 p.m.

Tom Weber passes these along: