RED WING, Minn. - The National Weather Service confirms at least two brief tornadoes touched down in southern Minnesota Monday night, but damage in Red Wing was caused by straight-line winds.
The two tornadoes are both considered EF-0. One of them hit just east of Nerstrand in Rice County and another hit the small town of Vasa in Goodhue County.
A Damage Survey Team moved on to Red Wing to assess the damage, and to see if a third tornado touched down. On Tuesday evening, NWS Twin Cities confirmed on Twitter that the team determined the damage there was caused by straight-line winds.
City emergency management director Tony Grosso says two homes and two businesses saw heavy damage in the storm.
“We did also have a few cars with trees on them. Our officers went and made sure there was nobody in the cars,” Grosso explains. “No one was hurt that we know of in this storm.”
Adam Wachholz owns one of the two homes that were damaged.
“I wasn’t really expecting my roof to be torn off,” Wachholz says.
“I didn’t notice the roof was gone until I came out and one of my neighbors was pointing up.”
Once the roof came off, Wachholz’s home had very little protection from the rain.
He says almost everything inside his home was soaking wet.
“I’m still assessing the damage right now. Still going through everything. There’s a lot that’s gone,” Wachholz says.
City officials say the two hardest hit areas include the Red Wing Airport and Bay Point Park near downtown.
At the airport, several hangars were damaged, including one that completely collapsed in the storm.
The strong winds also toppled dozens of trees at Bay Point Park, which was closed Tuesday as crews worked to clean up the damage.
Dozens of other homes and structures also received minor amounts of damage during the storm.
City officials say a special curbside storm debris collection service will be in effect all this week to help home and business leaders clean up their properties.
