Storm damage survey planned in 3 ND counties

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Tornadoes that hit eastern North Dakota late Sunday damaged more than half a dozen farmsteads in one southeastern county.

Victor and Beverly Weigel said on Monday that every building on their farmstead near Berlin, in LaMoure County, including their home was destroyed. Tractors were found in a field a quarter mile away and a pickup truck and a van were found half a mile away, Victor Weigel said. Some livestock were badly injured and had to be killed.

"We were sitting around the house and wind started coming up and all of a sudden it just got really wild, and I said, 'It's time to get to the basement,'" he said.

He and his wife crawled into a small cellar space lower than the basement to escape the destruction. Had they been anywhere else on the farm, he said, "We would have been gone."

Six other farms in the area were hit and three had significant damage, county Emergency Manager Kimberly Robbins said. One homeowner needed stitches after being hit with flying debris. LaMoure County Commissioner Keith Heidinger told The Forum newspaper that one farm lost 17 grain bins.

The National Weather Service on Monday planned to send officials to the southeastern counties of LaMoure, Stutsman and Dickey to assess the storm damage. The agency said numerous tornado warnings were issued for parts of those counties Sunday night. Tornado touchdowns also were reported in Eddy and Griggs counties, damaging trees, according to the Grand Forks Herald.

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