tornado – Dustin Monke

People injured, and homes destroyed and damaged after tornado hits Baker, Mont.

BAKER, Mont. — An unknown number of people were injured, at least two homes were destroyed and as many as a dozen others were damaged after a tornado struck the east side of Baker just before 7 p.m. Saturday.

Dean Butori, the Fallon County deputy director of emergency services, said it’s believed the tornado touched down inside the southeast Montana city of about 1,900 people. Baker is about 15 miles from the North Dakota border and 100 miles southwest of Dickinson.

The damage, while not widespread, was significant.

“I’ve lived here my whole life. It’s the worst destruction I’ve seen,” said Steve Baldwin, a Fallon County commissioner and Baker resident was is acting as the Department of Emergency Services spokesperson.

*A photo of the tornado that struck Baker, Mont., on Saturday evening. (Submitted photo)*

Baldwin said he didn’t know how many people were injured or hospitalized, but “everyone is accounted for.”

“We’re just getting ready to go in and do a second assessment here, just to double check everything,” he said shortly after 10:30 p.m. Saturday.

Baldwin said electricity is out on the east side of Baker and that landline telephones are down.

He said at least seven homes were confirmed to have sustained significant damage. Two were destroyed and roofs were pulled off of at least five, he said. He said it’s very likely that others are also damaged.

“I was just right at the center of it there — the part that got hit the worst,” he said.

Baldwin said everyone is thankful no one was killed in the tornado because of the amount of activities taking place. Not only was Little League baseball being played at the time, the Montana High School Rodeo Association State Finals were being held not far from where the tornado tore apart homes.

Lori Hall, an off-duty 911 dispatcher who lives on the east side of Baker, said she saw the tornado form outside of the front door of her home and then watched as it hit her neighbors houses.

“The whole house is gone,” Hall said of one home not far from her own. “The neighbors dug them out. They were the first ones to be rescued.”

Hall said she saw an RV camper be lifted off the ground and get sent airborne by the storm, and watched as a horse fought to run against the high winds. She added that she later saw the same horse safe with its handler.

Emergency responders from Bowman County, N.D., and other neighboring Montana counties were called in to assist their Fallon County and Baker counterparts, Baldwin said.

The first report of the tornado was at 7 p.m., according to Todd Chambers, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Billings, Mont.

Chalmers said the tornado was relayed to them by a storm spotter four miles to the east of Baker.

He said a more accurate time of impact may be around 6:55 p.m. Chalmers said he viewed video and photos of the tornado impacting the town.

More information about the strength and the path of the tornado will become clear Sunday, he said. The National Weather Service is sending a team to Baker to collect data.

Chalmers said the storm system moved northeast to the Montana-North Dakota line, but it is unknown if it caused any further damage.

Derek Smith, a storm chaser from Oklahoma, said he got to Baker after the tornado had gone through.

“It was very confined. It’s very sporadic. It’s freaky how they work,” said Smith, who works for Live Storms Media. “One home was destroyed (but) the outbuilding, a metal shed, was totally unharmed with a lawnmower in it.”

Baker resident Dean Wang, who was working at the rodeo, said it was evacuated as contestants and spectators were taken to a storm shelter underneath the grandstand.

Wang said he watched as the tornado “touched down over (Lake Baker) and damaged several homes on the east side of town.”

He said the second round of the rodeo finals were suspended for the evening and will resume at 7 a.m. Sunday, but only if there is an ambulance available to be on scene. If not, Wang said the rodeo may have to be delayed further.

A LONG NIGHT REMEMBERED: 3 Families Share Their Stories of Tornado That Hit Dickinson 5 Years Ago Today

Antons — Jim and Betty Anton show a picture of the pool table they hid under during the tornado that destroyed much of their home on July 8, 2009.

Editor’s Note: There are literally hundreds of stories and different accounts of the night an EF-3 tornado struck the south side of Dickinson on July 8, 2009. Five years later, we take a look at three families — two of them next-door neighbors — and what they went through that day and in the tornado’s aftermath.

Jim and Betty Anton were sitting in their living room the night of July 8, 2009, when the sky turned dark seemingly in an instant.

Often, they had discussed where would be the best place to take cover in case the threat of a tornado ever turned real. Their house had a basement, but no place down there seemed perfect.

The Antons had ultimately decided they would either go underneath the staircase connecting the main floor and the basement or crawl beneath their pool table. That night, with only seconds to act, the Antons chose the pool table.

Jim Anton knew they had to move fast when he looked out their front window and saw trees flying by.

“He couldn’t finish the word basement’ fast enough, and we went down and got right under the pool table,” Betty Anton said.

“We slid under there like butter.”

As they laid face down under the pool table, the Antons heard what sounded like a train going through their house. Betty’s glasses flew off her face and hit the basement wall, followed by a crunching sound.

“And it was over with,” she said.

As quickly as the tornado came, it was gone. What meteorologists would later describe as an EF-3 “jumper,” moved east across Dickinson and continued out of town.

When all seemed quiet and safe again, Jim Anton pulled himself out from underneath the pool table and carefully walked upstairs. He didn’t linger there.

“He got right back downstairs, got under the pool table and said, ‘The living room is gone,’” Betty said.

Continue reading “A LONG NIGHT REMEMBERED: 3 Families Share Their Stories of Tornado That Hit Dickinson 5 Years Ago Today”

Tornado hits south of Watford City

WATFORD CITY — A tornado touched down about 5 miles south of Watford City on Monday night, damaging a dozen trailers at an RV camp, according to the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services.

Meteorologist John Martin with the National Weather Service in Bismarck said a tornado warning was issued for areas of McKenzie County at about 7:46 p.m. CDT Monday and learned shortly thereafter that a tornado had touched down. Martin said it was the first tornado of 2014 in North Dakota.

“We know that there were 12 trailers that were destroyed,” said Cecily Fong, the public information officer for the state Department of Emergency Services.

Continue reading “Tornado hits south of Watford City”

Photos from after Wednesday night's storm

I stumbled upon this overturned pickup while looking at a torn apart apartment building across the street. That’s when I knew this wasn’t just some little storm.

This is the first house I came upon that suffered nearly an entire loss.

The remains of someone’s home.

Perhaps my favorite picture of the entire ordeal. I was amazed that the clothes stayed in the closet while almost the entire frame of the house had been ripped apart.

I walked into the Reisenauer’s apartment with them as they showed me where they were sitting when the roof tore off.

These people were great to speak with. The man who lives in this house was in his kitchen when an camper came through the wall.

The guys in this SUV were in there when the back windows blew out. They said they promptly jumped out of the car and began running for safety.

This didn’t tone well, but it’s a street entirely blocked by downed trees. Down the street is Highway 22.

I couldn’t believe how some things remained and some things were destroyed. The frame of hte house is bent, there’s wood and debris covering the entire yard, yet the basketball hoop is still hanging, as are the bicycles in the garage even though the cars were moved several feet.

These trees in Al Meier’s yard were uprooted from the storm. Luckily, that’s about the extent of the damage the Meier’s suffered.

Greg Wilkinson stands next to what remains of his home in south Dickinson.

GRESS COMPLEX DAMAGE

The banner picture of what the second field at Gress Softball Complex looked like on Thursday evening. Ryan Nelson of Dickinson Parks and Recreation said that the Miller Lite softball tournament has been canceled, all softball through next Thursday has been canceled (at least), and they hope to organize a softball clean-up effort sometime soon.

All the fences have leaves and trees blown up against them like this.

Passersby walk next to the second diamond.

More of the second diamond.

One of the canopies was completely destroyed by a tree.

A closer shot of the bleacher that destroyed the second diamond’s fence.

A closer look at the destroyed canopy.

The big tree that looked over the outfield on diamond three was uprooted.

More damage along the fence at diamond three.

BROKEN TREES EVERYWHERE!

Photos from after Wednesday night’s storm