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American Morning

Tornado Rolls Through Minnesota Town

Aired June 12, 2001 - 11:11   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We continue our weather coverage. A town in west-central Minnesota took a hefty hit from a powerful tornado. Seven people were hit yesterday when the twister touched down in Benson, northwest of Minneapolis. Homes and businesses were damaged by violent winds. On the phone with us now is the mayor of Benson, Paul Kittelson.

Mr. Mayor, good morning.

MAYOR PAUL KITTELSON, BENSON, MINNESOTA: Good morning to you.

KAGAN: How is you town doing this morning?

KITTELSON: We're doing as well as can be expected. We're in the emergency operations stage of this now, and trying to assess what the damages are and what help is needed and where it's needed. That's what we're doing now.

KAGAN: We're reporting seven people hurt in Benson. How severe are those injuries?

KITTELSON: I believe the one boy, a 12-year-old boy, I believe he was transferred to Fargo and I believe he's still in critical condition. I tried to get fellow up on him this morning, and I understand he is still in critical condition.

KAGAN: Where were you during the storm?

KITTELSON: I had just come back from doctor's appointment. The whistles were blowing, and I just got home and I went down into the basement, my wife and I. The rest of the city was here in our shelter down at the city hall, and I looked out and I saw this cloud to the south and it looked like it had passed by and I was listening to the radio actually from neighboring down.

Ours had gone out -- the electricity had gone out, and they said there's a tornado down in Benson. They evidently saw it on the Doppler radar or something, and so I immediately came down to city hall. And we went out and, you know, cordoned off the area, assessed damage and did all of that afterwards.

KAGAN: So, given that the town has a siren system and you know to go down to the basement, I assume that this is twister country, you expect these kinds of things. KITTELSON: Yes, we don't get them as frequently as Oklahoma and down in that area, but we do get twisters up here, and we do have a siren system. I think we have three different sirens in various edges of the town so that -- I think everybody was forewarned.

And lucky for us, it landed -- it skipped kind of over one section and it landed right on the edge of our town where there's is more businesses than residences. It took out -- it completely wiped out a number of businesses out there.

One fellow has a cafe out there, the Viking Cafe. He likes in a trailer next to it. The trailer is completely crushed, the place is gone, but they heard the sirens and they went into a cooler, and, you know, a walk-in cooler, and they were safe in there.

KAGAN: Good for them. Is your town getting any help from either the state or federal government?

KITTELSON: It's been offered. All kinds of -- we've had offers from all kinds of people. Right now, the Red Cross is en route, FEMA people are en route, and we're in the assessment stage right now is what we're doing.

KAGAN: Well, along with that, Mr. Mayor, we're going to send our good wishes and the best to you in putting the town back together and all the people who have injuries and healing well.

That's Mayor Paul Kittelson of Benson, Minnesota. Thanks for joining us.

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