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Thursday storms ravage southeast Minnesota

A southeast Minnesota farmer says he was lucky to avoid major damage from storms Thursday night, but others weren’t so fortunate.

Les Anderson of Red Wing tells Brownfield multiple tornadoes touched down as the front moved through.

“Over by the Stanton area there’s a few operations that got hit pretty hard, grain bins, barns, sheds.  Lots of trees down.  Cannon Falls was without power.  Over by Welch we had a little bit of trees and that sort of thing down, nothing too dramatic as far as buildings.”

He says the weather is taking a toll on area crops.

“Corn has taken a hit around here.  Since the first of September we’ve had three pretty big wind events, so everybody is anxious to get the corn out because it’s going to keep on breaking down.  It’s pretty much the tops that are broken for the most part, but there are some places where (the wind) has laid it flat.”

Anderson says stalk strength was already a concern before Thursday’s storms, and suggests many affected growers will prioritize fields based on standability.