Neighbors Continue Cleanup After 4th Of July Tornado In Bemidji

The central part of Bemidji is recovering today after tornado touched down the morning of the 4th of July.

“I was scared and stuff. I thought something happened to my husband Mike and stuff, and when I came home I just got out of the car and started crying,” says Paula Souder, whose home was hit by yesterday’s tornado.

Beltrami County Emergency Management has now confirmed it was an EF1 tornado with winds from 90 to 100 mph that hit yesterday morning at around 6:30. The tornado was exactly 20 yards wide.

“Obviously, right here in the heart of the Bemidji, it’s kind of rare to get this concentrated damage,” says Chris Muller, the emergency management director with the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office.

Tornado sirens did not go off yesterday because the high winds did not meet the criteria for activation. Some say they were just starting their normal routine when the tornado hit.

“I was in the kitchen in the house at probably about 6:30. It sounded like a freight train hit my house and I didn’t know whether to run duck or hide,” says Mike Souder, Paula’s husband.

Officials at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, which sits on the corner of where the tornado hit, say they were alerted about the storm through social media. Luckily, there was no major structural damage to the church – only some roof damage and a broken window.

Julia Plum, the church administrator with St. Bartholomew’s, says, “I was up and on Facebook with people and watching the radar, and I just kind of saw it happen in real live time that people were posting pictures and I’m like, ‘that’s our neighborhood! That’s St. Barts!’ So, as church administrator, I started gathering photos and alerting people letting people know that we could see that it was okay- that our bell tower was fine.”

From uprooted trees to debris left all over the roads, the mess the tornado left will take a little while to clean up, although there are still no reports of any injuries.

“If it wasn’t for friends, I don’t think I would’ve survived this one because I was pretty devastated yesterday,” says Mike.

Today, neighbors are helping neighbors with cleanup duty. Many are also thanking the first responders for their help in the aftermath.

“The city was super fast on their part of the cleanup with the street trees, and we’ve got some cleanup going on in our extra parking lot and then we’ll have dust up removal,” says Plum.

It’s safe to say everyone is relieved it wasn’t worse than it was.

“I still have bad dreams about it and stuff, and I feel sorry for the other people that have to clean their yard and stuff,” says Paula.

Many homes in the area also lost power during the tornado. The residents who spoke to Lakeland News say their power returned this morning.