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On Monday May 5, 2036, 118 tornadoes struck the US states of Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, the Dakotas, Wisconsin and Nebraska.
A sizable number of the tornadoes were later determined to be of EF5/F5 strength after having passed through numerous fairly large cities. The devastation to the impacted cities makes this the worst tornado sequence ever recorded on all levels: cost, life span, size, strength, and death toll.
Of all the cities destroyed by the tornadic events, Minneapolis was the largest and most heavily damaged. Casualties in Minnesota alone exceeded 70-thousand.
President Yang Zhao-Long, after visiting the ruined area on May 8 with her sister, stated that she had "never seen such complete destruction." Minnesota Governor Jessica Anthony-Hollis later said, "This is unprecedented on a level I don't think anybody's ever seen."
Significant tornadoes –[]
Minnesota –[]
Farmer captures picture of tornado in Bemidji from a safe distance.
Bemidji tornado –[]
The first tornado of the sequence began as a very weak drill-bit tornado, 9 miles WSW of the city of Bemidji at 426am Central Daylight Time. The tornado rapidly strengthened and destroyed a pine forest in front of the city. It grew to ¾ of a mile wide and was moving at only 3 miles per hour. Two miles outside of Bemidji, still tracking to the east-northeast, the tornado swept away numerous trees and wheat fields, along with three barns.
Due to the tornado's slow forward speed, authorities were able to evacuate Bemidji in its entirety, resulting in no fatalities or injuries. 40 minutes after the city had been cleared, the tornado hit Bemidji with full force, blowing all objects away in a two-mile-wide radius of its visible condensation funnel. Essentially swallowing the city whole, the tornado moved slowly, as if to ensure that nothing be left standing.
The tornado ravaged Bemidji for an hour before dissipating over Lake Bemidji at 832am CDT. Indeed, after the tornado vanished, no complete piece of the city remained, rending all 18-thousand of its residents homeless.
A farmer with a powerful camcorder witnessed the destruction of the city from her car about four miles to the west. She later said, "I didn't even know there was a city right there until I had been filming for ten minutes, because the monster seemed to just be inhaling buildings, and it was like it wasn't stopping from just smashing building after building, and on and on."
Albertapolis Freeway Tornado –[]
- Main article – Albertapolis Freeway Tornado
Alexandria tornado –[]
At the same time the Bemidji tornado was dissipating, a new one was taking shape. An equally-massive behemoth of wind, the tornado was a killer from the start. The tornado simply materialized into existence just to the west of downtown Alexandria in less than ten seconds, overlapping Lake Winona and the city land, and it instantly started producing EF5-level destruction.
The tornado ripped the city in half as it traveled to the east at 30 miles per hour and a width of more than two-thousand feet. A brick complex near the lake was leveled and swept away by 340-mph winds. As the tornado crossed Broadway Street, 18 cars were thrown off the road into storefronts, and the stores themselves were destroyed as well immediately afterward. The city received no warning of the tornado, so anyone who was caught outside was killed or horrifically injured. The tornado was only in the city for about 7 minutes, during which 3-thousand-266 people were killed. The tornado moved eastward and engulfed the southern end of the village of Nelson, killing 126 of its 186 residents. About one minute after leveling Nelson, the tornado faded away. In all, the Alexandria tornado claimed 3-thousand-392 lives, all of whom had absolutely no warning of any tornado.
Heron Lakes tornado –[]
At 815am, a tornado formed in between Heron and South Heron Lake. The tornado traveled fifty miles to the east in a straight line, at a speed of 70 miles per hour, and a width of about 100 feet, narrowly missing the small towns of Trimont and Northrop. At a point about 1.3 miles north of Huntley, the tornado made a gradual curve to the northeast, and maintained its ground speed and width. It passed over top of a water treatment plant and lightly damaged a house and barn near the plant before skirting the town of Winnebago from west to north. No further damage to the town occurred. The tornado dissipated at 938am, a mile southeast of Mapleton at the intersection of Minnesota Highways 22 and 30. Nobody was killed by this tornado.
Storm-Rider tornadoes –[]
- Main article - Storm-Rider Tornadoes
Iowa – []
Chariton tornado. Photo taken by motorist on United States Highway 34.
Chariton tornado –[]
At 840am, a tornado took shape in southern Iowa at the intersection of 410th Street and United States Highway 65, and began traveling northeastward at a speed of 40 miles per hour. The tornado remained at a width of 170 feet. It struck the small village of Derby, killing 96 of its 115 residents. Tracking across numerous small lakes, it reached the town of Chariton at 850am, catching the town off guard. A hardware store on the southwest side of town was obliterated, with pieces of the store's sheet-metal roof flying and landing as far away as Des Moines. Downtown Chariton took a direct hit. Almost all the buildings there were swept off the map at EF5 intensity. Two-hundred-sixteen people were killed in Chariton. The tornado proceeded northwestward for 20 more minutes and then dissapated west of Marysville.