5 tornadoes hit Twin Cities on ‘night of terror’ in 1965, leaving 13 dead

The Twin Cities may have escaped the severe weather forecast by meteorologists earlier this week but the metro wasn t so lucky years ago An outbreak of five tornadoes tore through the western and northern suburbs on the evening of May killing people and injuring hundreds more in what the St Paul Dispatch described on its front page as a night of terror A sixth twister struck the area between Glencoe and Lester Prairie just west of the metro The storm s path of destruction stretched from Sibley County northeast to Anoka County laying waste to entire neighborhoods in Mounds View Fridley Blaine and the area around Lake Minnetonka Minneapolis and St Paul were virtually untouched The majority of destructive storm in the metro s recorded history it left an estimated million in damage in its wake more than million after adjusting for inflation The tornadoes were spun up by a line of supercell thunderstorms that rolled through the metro that evening according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Guidance The terror lasted three hours from the time the first twister touched down shortly after p m until the last one dissipated about p m Winds exceeding mph leveled houses tore trees from the ground and tossed automobiles around like toys the Pioneer Press and Dispatch informed About people were left homeless according to the DNR In Mounds View which was among the hardest hit communities entire blocks along Lois Lane were reduced to kindling Area hospitals were inundated with injured people Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids which received about tornado casualties issued an urgent call for surgeons from across the metro Fifty responded working until a m treating patients The call went out and people came instantly assistant administrator Thomas Mattson reported the Dispatch It goes to show that when tragedy strikes people do care The death toll likely would have been much higher if not for warnings issued by Civil Defense representatives who for the first time used air raid sirens to alert metro residents to tornadoes in the area according to the DNR Related Articles A century after it opened St Paul s Ford plant is gone but not quite forgotten Record flood of was St Paul s highest but city escaped worst damage years ago Gatsby got mixed reviews in Fitzgerald s hometown papers Minnesotans were sterilized under state s eugenics law bulk of them women One of the FBI s original The bulk Yearned Fugitives was caught in St Paul by a bunch of kids