These comments were taken from our original Tornado site. The original contributors are unknown.

 

I was a junior at Waseca Central High School on the day of the tornado. My family had gone to Keister, Minnesota to attend my cousin's confirmation party. When we left their house after supper, we heard reports of bad weather in the area. As we came into Waseca, it was obvious that something was amiss. There were police blockades at the corner of Elm Avenue and 8th Street. We were told that a tornado had gone through and that we were not allowed to travel down 8th Street. My dad explained that our home was across the street from Clear Lake Park. We were let through, but did not know what we would find. Luckily, our home was untouched, but we were soon to learn of the devastation near the White Castle area and of the terrible destruction and loss of life on the other side of the lake.

 

I remember my friend said she was taking a bath when a tree flew by her second story window. She was pretty shaken up.

 

I was a sophmore at Waseca when this happened. I was walking from the house to the barn, south to north, when something made me drop the pails of water I was carrying to wash the milkers. I ran over to the windmill and wrapped my arms and legs around it. I remember thinking how stupid I was and that my dad was going to be mad about dropping the water pails, when, the tornado hit me. It felt like the whole Viking football team beating on me. When I got inside of the twister, I opened my eyes and watched shingles, nails, boards, and dirt circling me. I remembered that I did a lot of praying and that it would be great to live through this. It was then that I saw the barn explode, and was knocked out when the debris started settling down. By the way, the cow with the board through its stomach was not dead instantly. I remember it walking around with the board sticking through it. My dad was wondering what to do with it when it finally went down and died - about an hour or two after the tornado went through.

 

Nice job on remembering those lost. My grandparents house is among those pictured on 11th St SE, Rux's were their neighbors. Dave & June Dunlap are my grandparents and I remember, even though I was small, the HORRIBLE noise the tornado made, things flying by the window and walking over to my grandparents house after the worst was over. We lived on 10th street and just walking a block I don't think I'll ever forget the noise or the things that we saw.