Northwood, ND

[airmail]

Tornado

What a night for this community, which is about 30 miles southwest of Grand Forks. Although the town is now "closed off", please consider giving this town your time and help when they need it.

[Siouxmama]

This is tragic.

I live in Thompson, and noticed some trees down around town when I took my kids to school this morning. 1 tree was HUGE and ripped right out of the ground, roots and all.

My heart goes out to those in Northwood.

[SoonersNSioux]

I'll add to this later (at work right now), but myself and several other grad students in the atmospheric dept happened to witness this storm. We actually drove through Northwood ~10-20 minutes beforehand which is sobering. While I believe they had adequate warning (tornado warning was issued), the tornado occurred right at nightfall and appeared to be wrapped by rain - in other words, you couldn't see it coming. Add to the fact it hit a mobile home park, you pretty much have a recipe for disaster... prefab homes are death traps in bad weather. I'll post some pictures tonight (although there isn't much to see of the tornado itself).

[PCM]

The lightning last night was unbelievable. After 50+ years of living in the Dakotas, I'd never seen lightning of such intensity that lasted for so long.

My thoughts and prayers are with the residents of Northwood.

[sioux rube]

I drive through Northwood every time I come up for a SIOUX game.My prayers are with every one of those citizens.RIP for the one resident who didn't make it through the storm.

[Stromer]

The only upside to these disasters in North Dakota is the helpful nature of the residents and the machinery available for use. While I have not seen what Northwood looks like today, I can remember back a couple of years to when my town had a microburst go through that cause tornado like damage. The biggest problem is that fallen trees tend to block all streets. Luckily for these small towns, the number of trucks, chainsaws, and loader tractors around helps make the cleanup efforts alot easier. I wish all the residents the best.

[Sal Atticum]

[luapsided]

its simply amazing the destruction that this has caused. cars are in balls of metal across the highway from where they once were covering the flattened corn fields. I cant imagine...

[luapsided]

Also this field use to be probably 8 foot tall corn field completely farmed out by the tornado.

[luapsided]

These cars seriously all looked like they've been crushed in a crusher. obviously they were being thrown around for some time

[Goon]

Also this field use to be probably 8 foot tall corn field completely farmed out by the tornado.

Yikes that is a corn field.

[Siouxfan_inDenver]

This sucks. I graduated high school in Northwood, my heart is definately back home right now.

[luapsided]

Yeah the cornfield goes from standing to partially standing to completely wiped out as shown here. Very odd to see in person thats for sure. The way a couple of these cars that I saw and how completely destroyed they were, Im surprised that only one persons life was taken. One too many but thank god its not more than that

[Sioux-cia]

I was the Home Health/Hospice Director in Northwood many years ago when the hospital had a home health and hospice department. There are some fantastic people living in that community. I wish them the best and they are most certainly in my prayers.

I can't believe the absolute devastation I'm seeing in the pictures sent to me and those posted here. It's a miracle that only one life was lost. I'm so sorry for his family.

[Siouxfan_inDenver]

It's a miracle that only one life was lost. I'm so sorry for his family.

Larry was a good man. When I got kicked out of shop class my senior year for being a dumb high school boy, I helped him out with his janitorial duties 3rd hour. He meant no harm to anyone. I wish I wasn't so darn far away right now.

[farce poobah]

I was born in Northwood, and have a lot of relatives and friends living there. Thankfully, for an EF3 or EF4 tornado, loss of life and injuries seem to be about as good as can be feared for a storm of that magnitude.

Saw some pix of a family house and the really annoying thing is that mud blew into everything. Water dries up, trees can be chainsawed but mud has to be scraped off ... long process.

Once they open up the town, and for a while now, there will be need for cleanup help. Maybe Wednesday?

[star2city]

If anyone knows of any relief fund to help residents of Northwood, please post it here. Being out of state, it would one of the few ways I could help.

Edit: Here's one

Salvation Army (write Northwood Tornado in memo field)

1600 University Ave.

Grand Forks, ND 58203

[SoonersNSioux]

Pictures: http://people.aero.und.edu/~kennedya/2007/CHASE-082607/

[PCM]

Pictures: http://people.aero.und.edu/~kennedya/2007/CHASE-082607/

Those are some great pictures of the storm.

[SiouxPride0303]

My dad went in to help a friend and customer of the company he works for and he said the coverage on the news and the photos do no justice for the widespread damage. The friend's buildings are totally gone and it sounds like they'll be razing the house and starting over. My dad said he spent the day walking the yard, picking up garbage...so much devastation.

During the flood, this guy was a customer of the company and became a friend of our family when he helped us move our stuff out before the water was in our neighborhood and then stored it all in his storage areas for the summer while we rebuilt. Wonderful man, now lost almost everything. So very very sad.

[luapsided]

those are some awesome pictures. I couldn't figure out at first where you shot the pictures from but I got it now. I think the tornado is just going back up in the sky from the picture with the black arrow on it. By the location of it, just to the west of that farm outside northwood, is where the tornado had gone back up judging by the damage of the corn fields. I wonder if it fully touched down?

[iramurphy]

It would be great for the athletes and for Northwood if UND's athletic Dept. would bus down the FB and hockey teams for a day to help with the cleanup. I hope the UND student body is willing to go down and help out if they are needed. Student senate should arrange for coordination with Red Cross or Salvation Army to see if they could be of help.

[Sioux-cia]

I seem to remember some youth groups came to GF to help with cleanup. At least there were some college age volunteers who helped my elderly neighbors. I think it would be wonderful for UND students to go help. When I worked in Northwood, there was a large number of seniors in the community whose children lived out of state.

[Sioux_Yeah_Yeah]

Just wondering.....

If students were to head to Northwood to help out, who would they have to talk to in order to get started?? And do they get handed assignments to help out with, or do they just kinda go in and do whatever??

[SoonersNSioux]

From the Herald

A process has been set up for volunteers who want to assist in the cleanup in Northwood, N.D.

United Methodist Church and Lutheran Disaster Response in Northwood are coordinating volunteers. Volunteer hours will be from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Curfew is still in place in Northwood from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. and volunteers will not be allowed to overnight or camp in Northwood.

All volunteers will need to check in with the command post at the Cenex Station on state Highway 15 in Northwood. Volunteers need to wear boots, long pants and bring gloves and if available bring rakes, brooms or shovels. Volunteers are urged to be current on their tetanus vaccinations.

If you would like to make a financial contribution toward the cleanup effort, send checks payable to Northwood Recovery to Alerus Financial, PO Box 220, Northwood, ND 58267.