Rescuers were going door to door to check on residents after a possible tornado struck Forada, a city of about 160 residents in central Minnesota, on Monday, downing power lines and damaging dozens of homes, a county official said.
Julie Anderson, the director of emergency management for Douglas County, Minn., said there were no immediate reports of significant injuries or deaths in Forada, about 135 miles northwest of Minneapolis.
She said that while rescuers were checking on residents, they were also waiting for utility crews to clear downed power lines and ensure that those lines were deactivated for safety.
“It’s a number of homes, but we don’t believe it’s in the hundreds,” Ms. Anderson said, describing the scale of the damage. “We believe dozens of homes.”
She said the damage was limited and “wasn’t widespread.”
David Reller, Forada’s mayor, said that at least part of the city “did take a direct hit” and that many houses and structures were damaged, although he was not certain of the extent of the destruction.
He said that tornadoes are very rare in Forada and that golf ball-size hail had pelted the city Sunday night. “This is just a very unusual year,” he said.
The small city of Eagle Bend, about 30 miles northeast of Forada, was also hit, according to Michael Wisniewski, the director of emergency management for Todd County, Minn. He said that at least one home had lost its roof and that many power lines had been knocked down. He said there were no injuries or deaths reported in Todd County.
“Everybody’s safe,” Mr. Wisniewski said.
Earlier on Monday, the National Weather Service office in the Twin Cities area had issued a tornado watch and classified it as a “particularly dangerous situation.”
“We do not include this wording often,” the office said. “The environment favors strong tornadoes and anyone in the watch needs to monitor this situation closely.”
Local officials had been warning people to take shelter on Monday, as the severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes approached.
The Weather Service said severe thunderstorms were forecast across parts of the northern Plains and the upper Mississippi Valley on Monday.
“Large to giant hail,” wind gusts of 60 to 80 miles per hour, and tornadoes were probable, the Weather Service said, including the possibility of several long-tracked tornadoes that travel along the ground for long distances.
More than 86,000 customers in Minnesota had lost power as of Monday evening, according to PowerOutage.us, which aggregates data from utilities across the United States.
“Stay storm aware, Minnesota,” Gov. Tim Walz wrote on Twitter on Monday afternoon. “We are watching the new round of storms coming in and have crews working to restore power as quickly as possible around the state.”
