Midnight Madness (in the basement)

By Brittany Lawonn, The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead
Published Wednesday, July 14, 2004

A tornado ripped through 45 miles of west-central Minnesota late Monday night, tearing down power lines and causing extensive damage to trees and lake cabins.

The tornado reached winds around 100 mph and stretched to about a quarter-mile at Tamarac Lake in Otter Tail County, said Steve Schurr, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, N.D.

"It's probably fortunate that it didn't hit on a weekend; more people would have been at the lake," he said Tuesday.