Northwood, ND Tornado Outbreak – August 26, 2007

The most powerful tornado of the day formed three miles to the west-southwest of Northwood in Grand Forks County at 8:42 p.m. CDT. While initially weak and narrow, the tornado began to grow and intensify as it crossed the Goose River, where a 200 yard wide stretch of downed trees was left. The tornado was 550 yards (about a third of a mile) wide when it struck the Northwood airport. Here, a plane hangar was removed at EF1 intensity and small airplanes were destroyed. Three-quarters of a mile further northeast the tornado would enter Northwood. It was already 900 yards (a half-mile) wide and would continue to grow.

Northwood mayor Rick Johnson had been more worried about hail damage to the cars at his dealership than the tornado. After moving his cars into an indoor shelter he headed home for what should have been the night. He had been home no more than 30 seconds before hearing a loud rumble, with tree branches beginning to blow about.

Dave Korsmo was also aware of the impending severe weather and went to check on his mom and dad. He had just gotten into their house when they received the tornado warning alerts. He gathered everyone into the home’s basement area just before the tornado struck.

Several neighborhoods on the southwestern side of the town sustained up to EF2 damage with roofs torn off and trees snapped or uprooted. The tornado would keep a gradual northeastward curving track and continued to strengthen, making a direct strike on the Northwood Public School. That structure sustained irreparable EF3 damage and was later torn down. Surveyor Greg Gust noted that the damage indicated a clear multi-vortex pattern, with separate streaks of intense damage embedded within a vast swath of lighter damage.

The tornado then tore through the business district. Large retail and even brick buildings were severely damaged or destroyed. This included the local health center, a bank, a supermarket, and a new fire station. A large wooden grain elevator belonging to Northwood Equity Elevator sustained severe damage. This is what Greg Gust told me when I asked about the damage to this structure and surrounding areas: “The wooden grain elevator, top portions torn off. From the wood frame boot shelter at the very top, down maybe 20 feet into the 2×6 (six inch solid walls) flat nailed and interlaced storage portion. A grain car full of wheat was parked on the tracks nearby and thrown some 40 feet westward… No DI (Damage Indicators, used to rate tornadoes on the EF scale) really spoke to these issues. A well built wooden grain elevator is incredibly tough.”

A final neighborhood was struck as the tornado moved through the northeastern portion of Northwood. Sadly, the tornado turned deadly here. 57-year-old Larry Weisz was killed when he was pinned between a tree and the base of a mobile home. Damage appeared to be more consistently stronger as the tornado left the residential outskirts, with a shelterbelt sustaining severe denuding and minor debarking of trees.

The now rain-wrapped tornado continued to intensify as it traveled another half of a mile beyond the outskirts of the town proper. There, it reached a maximum width of 1400 yards (4/5ths of a mile). EF4 damage was noted in this area to multiple structures, caused by a particularly intense subvortex. Most of the building which housed the agricultural company Agvise Laboratories was leveled to the ground. It was well constructed, Greg describing it as the equivalent of a two-story office building with part consisting of larger bay laboratory areas. Two well constructed MBS (Metal Building System) buildings belonging to Gabriel Construction were located in this area. The first was severely damaged and partially destroyed. The second was completely leveled and mostly swept from the slab. The trees surrounding the second MBS were also removed. Because of the contextual damage to this building, it was rated EF4 rather than a typical maximum rating of high-end EF3. Nearby low lying shrubbery was denuded and partially debarked, and steel beams from the building were twisted and tossed. Massive metal tanks from this company were picked up and hurled; one traveled a mile, the other one and a half miles. Gravel trucks at the business were swept away and mangled, one being tossed hundreds of yards across the highway. 18 cars had been parked in Rick Johnson’s adjacent car dealership parking lot; many were damaged beyond recognition. Some had even been thrown a half mile or more into fields. Either a small sugar beet or soybean field immediately north of Gabriel Construction was thoroughly scoured to only soil.

The damage to strong, fully mature corn from this tornado was highly impressive. To the northwest of Gabriel Construction on the other side of the road was a cornfield. Here, fully mature corn plants were stripped and snapped several inches above the roots and flattened into the soil. Any pieces of corn that could be found had been husked by the extreme winds and often sliced into chunks. Photographs indicate there was at least one smaller area where corn was scoured until very little but the ground was left.

Greg Gust at the NWS directed ambulances dispatched from Grand Forks out of the way of the storm as they almost drove into the path of the tornado. Fortunately, the extreme intensity would not last for long. Curving abruptly to the east-southeast, the tornado dramatically weakened, dissipating only two and a half miles to the east-northeast of the town at 8:54 pm CDT. It had existed for only twelve minutes with a path length roughly six miles long and an average forward speed of 30 mph.

Back in Northwood, mayor Rick Johnson got in his car and turned the corner onto Main Street. He was stunned by his first look at what had happened to his town. Rick made his way to city hall to get a handle on what had happened. Within about an hour search and rescue began. The house Dave Korsmo had sheltered in sustained little more than broken windows, but many were not so lucky. In the town of roughly 950 people, 431 out of 460 homes had been impacted by the tornado. 57 of those were destroyed. Just one day before school started the town’s grade school had been destroyed. Advance warning of the tornado had kept the human toll quite low for such an event. Nevertheless, one had been killed, 18 more injured, and 60-62 million dollars in damage done. In the end, 2600 truckloads of debris would be removed to the town landfill.

Northwood made a full recovery. The National Guard arrived in town 15 hours after the event and left five days later. The largest employers of the town whose buildings were destroyed all decided to stay and rebuild. This was a blessing for Northwood, as people needed the income from those jobs more than ever. Over the following summer, Greg aided the Northeast Human Services Group in conducting several meetings to help kids openly discuss their feelings, thoughts, and fears after the disruption and trauma the event had caused. Lessons learned from the debris removal process at Northwood by the North Dakota State Department of Health and Division of Waste Management has led to changed guidelines to help assisting communities in disaster recovery.