Tornado System Socks
Southern Minnesota Libraries
Tornadoes packing winds up to 206 miles per hour ripped through southern Minnesota March 29 damaging school and public libraries in the rural communities of St. Peter and Comfrey, about 12 miles north and 60 miles west of Mankato, respectively.
John Christenson, director of the Traverse des Sioux Library System in Mankato, told American Libraries he was the first one on the scene of the St. Peter Public Library destruction. "I crawled in the window at 5:30 Sunday evening about 10 minutes after the tornado struck and the roof was blown off into the lumberyard next door," he said. "I salvaged what I could and put it in my car."
Most of the 30,000-item library collection was ruined. The 400 citizens of Comfrey, where the tornado system first touched down at 4:27, had to evacuate the town; winds zapped both the high school library and the independent public library.
Posted April 13, 1998.
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