Aug. 5 tornadoes leave long path of destruction

Waseca County Sheriff Jay Dulas reports the National Weather Service visited Waseca County Tuesday of last week and, after viewing damage which occurred along a trail beginning southwest of Janesville and continuing eastward into Otisco township, determined the county had experienced two “EF 1” tornadoes. The classification indicates the storms reached top wind speeds of around 110 mph.

 

Dulas mentions that the county dispatch center received numerous calls the evening of August 5 about 7 p.m. reporting homes without power, downed power lines, fallen trees and damaged property. A considerable number of trees were damaged in Courthouse Park.

 

On the Steve Harguth farm south of Waseca, Ashley Harguth and her daughter Emily took shelter in the basement, where they could hear many loud noises and were suddenly in the dark when the power went out. Emily admits it was a “scary” experience, and says that, when she and her mom came outside and saw the damage, she couldn’t help thinking the storm “could have killed me.”

 

Steve, who was in Waseca at the time, said that, yes, the damage on his property was considerable, but “what really matters is that no one was hurt.” One large tree just missed the front of their family home. An exceptionally large maple tree in the front yard lost all its branches; one branch as large as a typical tree trunk was dropped directly onto a pickup truck. “It was pretty crushed,” he says. Not stopping there, the branch also damaged a section of the roof and wall of the nearby garage.

 

A neighbor of the Harguths lost “probably dozens of trees” on her property. She remembers being fascinated by the storm. Even though it was still daytime, “I couldn’t even see across the yard because the rain was so thick,” she said. “And it was going sideways.”

 

Winds that night removed an empty grain bin on the Mark Byron property in St. Mary’s township from its foundation and crumpled it.

 

According to the National Weather Service website, tornadoes are evaluated based on the damage they produce. The lowest EF rating is zero; highest wind speeds in that category are about 85 mph. The highest rating is eight; storms classified with this rating are estimated to reach speeds of about 200 mph.