Cleanup continued Saturday after tornadoes damaged dozens of homes in southeast Minnesota on Friday afternoon.
The Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office said about 30 homes were damaged — a dozen with significant damage — in Marion Township, southeast of Rochester.
“Emergency services have disconnected electricity and natural gas in the affected area for safety. Personnel from Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Rochester Fire and Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office have conducted door-to-door checks to assess needs and ensure resident safety,” the sheriff’s office reported Friday night.
The sheriff’s office said about 20 homes were damaged in Stewartville. A temporary shelter was set up in Rochester for people displaced from their homes.
The National Weather Service said a tornado also caused damage in Wabasha County, near Plainview and Elgin.
The severe storms continued moving east into western Wisconsin, with additional reports of tornadoes near Osseo and Black River Falls later Friday afternoon.
The State Patrol said a driver sustained non-life-threatening injuries when his semi was overturned by a tornado along Interstate 90 southeast of Rochester just before 2:30 p.m. Friday. But the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office said Friday night that it had no reports of other injuries or fatalities from the severe storms.
Tornadoes touch down in Rochester area, damaging dozens of homes
People’s Energy Cooperative reported several hundred homes and businesses were still without power Saturday morning in Olmsted and Wabasha counties — down from several thousand in the immediate wake of the storms.
Line crews worked into the night Friday to repair broken utility poles and downed power lines, and the co-op said those workers would be back in the field on Saturday.
The Olmsted County Board issued a disaster declaration following the storms. The county set up an online form for residents to report property damage from the storms, to help officials determine the extent of damage.
The National Weather Service office in La Crosse, Wis. — which covers the Rochester area — said crews would be in the field on Saturday to survey the strength and path of the tornadoes. They issued 26 tornado warnings Friday, a record for the office.
