Assessing the damage and cleaning up after tornadoes hit Winona County
WINONA, Min. (WLAX/WEUX) – Multiple towns in Winona County spent the day cleaning up from last night’s storm. First News at Nine’s Dashal Mentzel has more on the damage that happened within the county.
After tornado warnings were declared for Winona County Tuesday night (5/21/24), the National Weather Service in La Crosse spent Wednesday surveying the damage in the county to confirm whether or not a tornado had actually touched down. Mike Kurz with the National Weather Service explains, “We have a survey team that’s out looking at the damage reports in certain areas, like rolling Stone in Winona County, where we’ve had some concentrated damage reports in that area to determine how strong the winds were with an estimate of the wind speed and, the track as well, how long it was, and how wide it was.”
The National Weather Service confirmed an f-1 tornado had touched down nearby St. Charles before making its way to the west side of Rollingstone, where the tornado destroyed a couple of barns and a family’s shed. It also caused plenty of tree damage.
Winona County Emergency Management Coordinator, Ben Klinger, says they have been working with Rollingstone to make sure they have the resources for the cleanup, “They’re providing a place for people to take, debris from the storms as well as they’re hauling away debris for them. So, we’re working with them to make sure they have those resources. And then we’ll apply for state disaster aid, assist them doing that to make sure they get funds for the recovery effort.”
Klinger says it will be a busy next couple of days for the citizens and the officials in Rollingstone, “They’ll be doing their assessments, making sure they’re tracking all the costs, checking out any damage to city property and, just working with us and the state to make sure we identify any costs.”
Along with the tornado, other towns such as Minnesota City and Winona saw straight line wind damage. In Winona County, Dashal Mentzel First News at Nine.
The national weather service in La Crosse says the tornado reached peak wind speeds of around 105 mph.
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