2nd farm damaged in last week’s storms
Published 11:25 am Tuesday, May 8, 2012
KIESTER — A second farm near Kiester suffered tornado damage Friday night. Meteorologists were working Monday to confirm it as a second tornado in the Kiester area.
This one is less than a mile across the border into Iowa.
A weak tornado struck the place where retired farmer Clarence Vanhove and his wife, Esther, reside, on 500th St. in Winnebago County. The farm is about eight miles west of Scarville, nine miles north of Thompson but just four miles southwest of Kiester.
Don Vanhove, their son, confirmed the damage to the Albert Lea Tribune on Monday evening. He said the tornado totally demolished a machine shed and an old barn. He said it ruined a pole shed and caused damage to other buildings. The house was OK, and no one was injured.
“It happened so fast, and nobody got hurt,” he said.
He said family and friends have been picking up debris in the fields and the building remains have been pushed into piles.
National Weather Service meteorologists were working Monday to confirm the second tornado but had not reached the Vanhoves.
An Enhanced Fufita 0-rated tornado with winds up to 75 mph on Friday night demolished buildings on a farm belonging to Glenn and Cindy Scherb at 4430 State Highway 22, about a mile north of Kiester.
“It traveled east-northeast,” a report released Monday afternoon states, “and dissipated two miles northeast of Kiester in eastern Faribault County. The tornado was on the ground four miles and had a maximum width of 50 yards.”
Meteorologist Chris Franks said the twister was on the ground between 5:50 and 6 p.m. and traveled 20 to 25 mph.
He described it as being “rain-wrapped” — or surrounded by clouds of rain — and said the tornado was harder to see because of this.
“If it weren’t for chasers right there who were very close, sometimes these types of tornadoes are difficult to see,” Franks added.
The twister damaged the barn and several sheds on the farm of Glenn and Cindy Scherb on State Highway 22. The house survived, but it had windows out, siding and gutter damage and a lack of power.
A second farm belonging to Clarence and Esther Vanhove four miles southwest of Kiester was hit by a tornado, too. The house survived but several farm structures did not.