This picture was taken by Dave Langenwalter minutes after a tornado ripped through his farmstead five years ago. He and his youngest son, Joseph, hid in their basement and then went upstairs to discover the devastation the EF 4 tornado did at their rural Fairmount home.
This picture was taken by Dave Langenwalter minutes after a tornado ripped through his farmstead five years ago. He and his youngest son, Joseph, hid in their basement and then went upstairs to discover the devastation the EF 4 tornado did at their rural Fairmount home.
In last week’s edition of the News Monitor, we reported on the five year anniversary of a tornado strike at the Dave and Kathy Langenwalter farm in rural Fairmount.
Thankfully no one was injured or killed due to two timely phone calls made to Dave and his son Joseph, who was home at the time.
After reading this heartfelt story, I thought of the tornado sirens we have here in the region and how thankful I am knowing they are there to warn us of impending bad weather that may or may not produce a tornado.
I clearly remember one morning waking to the sound of tornado sirens. I thought I was dreaming, but the sound would not go away.
I got up and quickly figured out it was the tornado sirens warning us of danger. My family and I all went to the basement and turned on the radio to hear Richland County Emergency Manager Brett Lambrecht explain what was happening.
Funnel clouds were moving through the area that day with another storm right behind it. Luckily the funnel clouds passed quickly and there was no trouble.
However, if there had been a tornado we may have owed our lives to the sirens because it literally woke us up so we could get to the basement.
Tornado sirens are life savers, it’s that simple. In fact tornado sirens are a welcome sound. That’s not because I like to hear them, but because I’m glad they warn of possible danger.
I can’t help but think of how lucky we are to have people watching the weather 24 hours per day and warning us when danger presents itself.
A popular legend I remember from my childhood is a tornado will not strike near the point where two rivers join. So Wahpeton and Breckenridge are essentially protected and tornado proof.
The Twin Towns have the Otter Tail and Bois de Sioux rivers connecting to form the headwaters of the Red River. I do not know about you, but I have always felt protected even though I have plenty of memories heading to the basement in a hurry because of tornado sirens.
The truth is we are not protected as a tornado could easily hit the area. We have just been lucky.
The morale of this story is do not let your guard down and head for cover when the sirens sound.
