At least three people were killed in North Dakota after severe thunderstorms and tornadoes ripped across North Dakota and Minnesota overnight Friday, officials said.
Storm chasers found two people dead in a damaged home near Enderlin, N.D., which is about 175 miles east of Bismarck, on Friday night, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.
A third person killed in the severe weather was discovered by the Enderlin Sheldon Fire Department and “deputies found extensive damage to the area,” the sheriff’s office said.
Images posted on social media of the aftermath in North Dakota showed homes torn down to their foundations and a train pushed off the tracks and on its side in a field.
In Minnesota, the Beltrami County Emergency Management Office said on Facebook that there was extensive damage around the city of Bemidji.
The office said that it was responding to multiple gas leaks and that many of the region’s roads were blocked by “thousands of trees.” There were no immediate reports of injuries, the office said.
“Unfortunately, there is significant structure damage as well,” the office wrote. “Residents should plan for long-term power outages as significant infrastructure damage has occurred.”
Around 24,000 people in North Dakota and around 31,000 people in Minnesota were without power on Saturday morning, according to poweroutage.us.
The severe weather picked up late Friday evening, when strong thunderstorms known as supercells formed in central North Dakota and began to push east toward Minnesota, said Timothy Lynch, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, N.D.
His office had received multiple reports of tornadoes across three counties, with wind speeds of up to 112 miles per hour.
The line of storms became what forecasters call a derecho, a widespread and long-lasting wind storm that can be as destructive as a tornado. Even after the storms moved on, winds of up to 60 m.p.h. lingered in some areas for hours.
“It’s not an everyday event to see multiple wind gusts of over 100 miles per hour,” said Mr. Lynch, who said the storm system was one of the largest and strongest weather events he’s seen in his decade at the service.
“It’s been a very busy night,” he said. “There’s lots of damage.”
The region could see another round of severe thunderstorms on Saturday afternoon and evening, and again on Sunday.
Jonathan Wolfe is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news.
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