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Strong winds, including tornadoes, were swept across parts of the upper Midwest, killing three people and severely damaging the area’s airport, officials said.
Cass County Sheriff Jesse Janner said at a press conference that two men and women were killed around the town of Enderlin, North Dakota, late Friday. Enderlin is approximately 57 miles (92 km) southwest of Fargo. In North Dakota, around 24,000 customers were out of power.
In a post on social media site X hours ago, Grand Forks’ National Weather Service said the deaths of two people were attributed to a tornado that hit the home.
Timothy Lynch, the lead forecaster of Grand Forks’ NWS office, said the storm had been confirmed as a tornado, but its crew was still working to determine its strength and highest wind speed. He said the storm had affected Cass and Ransom’s neighboring counties.
“We still have people looking into what happened and gathering information. It was a pretty big event,” Lynch told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Also, heavy winds swept through localized areas of Minnesota. The NWS reported gusts of wind up to 106 mph (171 kph) overnight at Bemidji Regional Airport. Emergency managers there reported significant damage from falling trees and cars where people were trapped inside.
Beltrami County Emergency Management said the damage to the Bemidji area was “wide-range” and many power lines are declining.
“Don’t travel unless it’s an emergency. Many roads are blocked and a lot of power lines are dropping. Unfortunately, it handles many gas leaks.
Nearly 34,000 customers in Minnesota were not supplying electricity, according to Poweroutage.us.
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