Last night more stormy weather hit southern Minnesota. Channel 12 in Mankato was knocked off the air, and so I had to follow the storm in my hometown via friends' posts to twitter and Facebook. The Mankato Free Press reports in Severe weather sweeps through region:
Becky Portner and a friend were driving back from Mankato to New Ulm, where Portner lives, when they found themselves in the middle of torrential rains, wind and hail.
Unable to see the road, they pulled off into the parking lot of a Cenex station in Lafayette, which was closed. About 10 other vehicles around them had the same idea, two of which were motorcyclists getting pelted with hail.
Portner invited the two bikers into her Chevy Suburban, and the four of them watched as two funnel clouds dipped down toward the ground a couple of miles away.
“Then the truck starts shaking, and at one point it got picked up off the ground and set back down,” said Portner, who says she stayed fairly calm throughout the experience. “At that moment, it’s like, what are you gonna do? If it’s gonna pick you up, (you can’t do anything about it).”
Read the rest at the MFP. Storms earlier in the month caused enormous damage, and Minnesota's elected officials have appealed for federal disaster relief. Minnpost reports:
Minnesota lawmakers are seeking a federal disaster declaration for seven counties ravaged by a tornado and high winds, a declaration that could bring with it up to $35 million in federal aid.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty sent a letter to President Obama today requesting the funds for the seven counties — Faribault, Freeborn, Olmsted, Otter Tail, Polk, Steele and Wadena. It was followed by a similar appeal signed by Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken and Reps. Jim Oberstar, Collin Peterson and Tim Walz.
Eighteen tornados reportedly touched down during the storms, which killed three people.
Photo: The sky in my world last night. Not so bad in this neck of the woods.
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