'It was something unrealistic'

Mother Nature dropped not one, but three tornados Wednesday, and questions regarding the amount of damage she caused still remain a bit foggy.

The National Weather Service won't be able to provide a rating for the twister for about a week.

Patrick Ayd, meteorological intern for the NWS in Bismarck, said the service issued multiple tornado warnings and thunderstorm warnings Wednesday afternoon.

"It started in northern Golden Valley County, tracked eight to 10 miles north of Medora, then made a right turn over to Belfield and then headed down kinda between New England and Regent," Ayd said. He said a second storm formed in Adams County, moved northwest of Hettinger and eventually produced a funnel cloud.

NWS meteorologist Todd Hamilton in Bismarck confirmed three tornados touched down in the area.

At 6:28 p.m., eight miles south of Belfield, a tornado was reported crossing Highway 85 about seven to 10 miles south of Belfield.

Shortly after, at 7:03 p.m., a tornado touched down two miles north of New England. Again, at 7:23 p.m., a tornado touched down 15 miles northwest of Regent. For the next 13 minutes, funnel clouds swirled above Hettinger, moving toward Mott.

During the storm, Elaine Schulz of Dickinson, was driving on Highway 22 heading toward Dickinson.

"All of a sudden one side of the cloud came down and touched the ground and I saw the dust swirling," Schulz said. She said she saw a farm off Highway 22 that had been nearly destroyed.

"Where it (tornado) was at you couldn't see because everything was just black," Schulz said. "It was something unrealistic, I just can't explain it to you. You could not see the vehicles in front of you."

Joe Hughs of Dickinson was four miles west of Highway 22, traveling east on Highway 21, when he said the sky went from white to black in an instant. Hughs said he had to turn around because the wind became too intense.

"It was over 100-mile-per-hour winds when I got into it," Hughs said. "It was lifting my truck to the right. Hail was coming down."

Local and area officials had no additional information Thursday as to whether or not severe damage was caused in areas other than the Emch farm south of Belfield.

Brent Pringle, Stark County Emergency Services manager, said as of 4:30 p.m. Thursday, he hadn't read the sheriff's report from the storm response as he was out of town.

"What I know and what I've heard, is that there were no injuries besides to some livestock and some farm animals." Pringle said he received the information from the newspaper.

Sheriff Clarence Tuhy also had no new information Thursday.

The Golden Valley Emergency Services office had no reports of damage. Phone calls were not returned from emergency services departments in Billings, Slope, Bowman, Hettinger and Adams counties.

Denise Brew of Dunn County Emergency Services said rain and small hail were reported but no major damage.

Leonard Hibl, director of Member Services at Roughrider Electric Cooperative, Inc., said there was some wire down, one broken pole and two people without power.

Hettinger Mayor Gary Friez said golf-ball and larger hail were reported.

"A lot of vehicles are damaged -- siding was torn off," Friez said. "I was out looking at it this morning early and there was still hail on the north side of a lot of the buildings. It was a pretty good size storm." Friez said he didn't know of any injuries.

Dennis Cannon, spokesperson for St. Joseph's Hospital and Health Center in Dickinson said no one was admitted or treated for storm-related injuries.