As the summer slowly comes to an end in central Minnesota, large storms continue to still affect the area. With a year that already brought record rain in July (that we highlighted in an earlier segment), high winds, and a great deal of damage in August, it is only fitting that September would have a tornado.
On Wednesday, September 7th, an EF1 tornado producing wind speeds around 110mph touched down in the Fort Ripley area, about 40 miles from Stern Rubber’s Staples location. At around 11 pm on Wednesday night, the Morrison county sheriff’s office was notified of a large storm capable of producing a tornado.
Within the next half hour, the storm ripped across Morrison County, overturning trees, flipping campers, damaging homes, and capsizing boats. The storm continued about a mile and a half north to the Camp Ripley area where the storms destruction ended. According to the sheriff’s office, the storm was undetected, developed quickly, and was very fast moving.
Camp Ripley took the brunt of the storm with a significant damage. Several building used for housing and training and maintenance received major damage, including roofs torn off. Also, a 10-megawatt solar farm that was set to be dedicated this week was dedicated by flying debris.
Another hard hit area was the Green Prairie Fish Lake area, and specifically Laurie’s Lakeside Resort. At the resort, campers were moved, and tipped over, and several boats and docks were missing from the shore.
Within the last two years the area in which Stern Rubber is located has experienced, straight line hurricane force winds, record setting rain fall, several tornados and millions of dollars in damage.