Pawlenty visits tornado-damaged Hugo; toddler who died is identified

The 2-year-old boy who was killed in the tornado that swept through Hugo was identified by authorities this afternoon as Nathaniel Prindle. His older sister, 4-year-old Annika, is in critical condition and their father, Gerald (Jerry) Prindle, is in stable condition at Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

Their mother, Christy, was treated and released at Regions.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty toured the most heavily damaged neighborhood of Hugo today before caravans of homeowners were allowed back in starting at 1 p.m., including many who were out of town for Memorial Day weekend and had not yet seen the damage for themselves. A total of 27 homes were destroyed and more than 500 suffered some sort of effect from the storm.

Annika is being treated at Gillette Children's Hospital, which is part of the complex that includes Regions. Hospital spokesman John Barrett said that Jerry "is conscious and his vital signs, such as pulse and blood pressure, are strong."

The Prindle family released a statement this afternoon: "We would like to thank our incredible neighbors and the Hugo and White
Bear Lake Emergency personnel for all they did.  They responded within minutes of the tornado hitting and pulled us out from the wreckage.  They also provided blankets, towels, comfort, and performed CPR on our daughter [Annika].  Everyone involved demonstrated such kindness and compassion.

"We are asking now for prayers for Annika and Jerry as they recover."

Pawlenty toured both by air and ground, walking up to destroyed and heavily damaged homes. He stopped at some points to pick up debris along 159th Avenue, where a 2-year-boy died, and his older sister was resuscitated by neighbors who rushed to help one another in the wake of the storm.

The tornado  was the stronger of two spawned by the same storm, the National Weather Service determined today.

A tornado ranked EF-1, with wind gusts of 86-110 mph, toppled trees and caused other mayhem when it touched down in Coon Rapids and moved east toward Blaine. The more powerful tornado was ranked EF-3, with gusts of 136 to 165 mph, and raked a path from the eastern edge of Lino Lakes into Hugo.

The area between the two tornadoes is mostly undeveloped, and weather service officials won’t know if that area was damaged until they do an aerial survey.

According to the Red Cross, 27 homes were destroyed by the tornado, 16 suffered major damage, 75 suffered minor damage and 397 were affected -- a category that includes missing shingles, minor hail damage to siding, debris around dwelling.

Flanked by local officials including U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar,  D-Minn., Hugo Mayor Fran Miron, and state legislators from the area,  Pawlenty told reporters that much of the damage in Hugo was to private residences that would be covered by insurance -- rather than to public infrastracture.

Starting at 1 p.m., homeowners were being allowed on their storm-damaged properties. They were supposed to leave by 6 p.m.

The Hugo City Council declared a state of emergency this morning, clearing the way for officials to apply for state and federal aid.
There will be a homeowner meeting 7 p.m. tonight at the school, with additional updates.

No one will be allowed to stay overnight tonight, but some homeowners may get back in for good on Tuesday.

Hugo Mayor Fran Miron, meeting with homeowners today at Oneka Elementary School, extended his condolences to the family of the child killed in the storm, and said 17 people have been treated for injuries. The school is serving as the command center and a place where residents can go for information and aid.

Pawlenty stopped at the command post and visited with two brothers, Peter Deppert, 13, and Matthew Deppert, 10. They had been at their cabin up north on Sunday when they saw a television news report that funnel had wiped out part of their neighborhood.

“All that stuff that got broken,” the governor told the boys quietly, “you’ll get new stuff.”

The boys’ mother, Jane Deppert, hugged the governor and thanked him for coming just before the family went to see what was left of their home.

Pawlenty told reporters that Minnesotans have a history of rallying to help victims of natural disasters, whether it be by tornados and floods and blizzards. “This is a state that says we will help be with you in challenging times, and that will be the case with Hugo and surrounding areas,” he said.

Preliminary assessments are under way to determine if the losses meet the threshold for public disaster assistance, he said.

Regions Hospital reported  today that of the seven tornado victims brought in Sunday, four were treated and released, two remained hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries and one was transferred to Gillette's Children's Hospital, which is in the same building as Regions. The names of the victims have not been released, so no condition reports were available.

St. John's Hospital in Maplewood reported that its emergency room treated five victims. A nursing supervisor said today that the other patients, four adults, were treated Sunday and released.

Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, which received three adult tornado victims, said two of the three were treated Sunday and released. The third person, an adult male, was listed in fair condition Monday afternoon

Tornado eyewitnesses

Shelley Graf was returning for a supermarket when she and her husband turned into the area where the tornado hit. The tornado spun right in front of their car. They were trying to get to the house because their two children were there.

The funnel cloud was in three colors -- green, blue and brown -- and made a straight path through the houses in the Hugo neighborhood where it hit.

"It just looked huge," she said. "Horrifying, scary."

The Flores family had heard the storm warnings and were bringing in cushions from patio furniture when suddenly trees began bending, and within 15-30 seconds , the winds overtook them. Terri Flores saw the funnel. Once the neighbors helped each other out, and searched for children, she said, they was little they could do, because there was so much debris and the smell of a gas leak was so thick.

On the other side of the development, Lynne Blomquist had been making supper when the storm hit. She gathered her sons, Jordan, 13, and Evan, 12, and they cowered in a closet  beneath their stairway. They heard the roar, which Jordan would later say sounded like a roller coaster.

"You could feel the pressure in your ears," Lynne Blomquist said. "You could hear the glass breaking."

Then, Lynne Blomquist said, all was quiet.

They emerged to see daylight where they shouldn't have been able to see it, she said, through holes in the walls. Part of their kitchen ceiling had collapsed, and water was pouring in, with a rushing sound. Broken glass and wet insulation filled the house. Their three-car garage was gone. So was much of the neighborhood, the mother said.

"I was just screaming and crying," Lynne Blomquist said. "I realized that this happened to our family, and our house was destroyed.Our neighbors were running house to house, yelling, "Is everybody OK?"

Hugo building inspectors are tagging homes today. A green tag means a home is safe to enter; a red tag means it is not.

Mayor Miron said, “Be prepared. It’s not safe to go into some of these homes. If you have a red tagged home, you can’t do it.”

On Saturday, volunteers will be welcomed to help remove storm debris from the area. Those wishing to volunteer should watch the city of Hugo website for details.

Sen. Norm Coleman toured the area this morning, and Gov. Tim Pawlenty is expected to do so early this afternoon.

At noon there were five teams of rescue dogs making a third sweep as they look for victims in the rubble. Searchers still must account for 40 owners and occupants, who may be away for the holiday weekend.

Red Cross workers are at Oneka Elementary School, serving lunch and dinner to evacuees  and providing emergency medications and counseling.

Washington County Sheriff Bill Hutton said he's been assuring residents their property is being well protected.

Rep. Matt Dean said,  “It was a very well coordinated emergency response. “

Teams of insurance agents had set up shop at the command post to begin taking claims from residents.

The first phase of the recovery will be understanding the scope of the damage, and the second will be the rebuilding phase, the governor said.

“And that’s where some of the adrenaline wears off and some of the heartbreak settles in even deeper,” Pawlenty said. “This community will need our help in the weeks and months and maybe even the years to come. But we will make sure that the state is here in all respects to help this community.”

Klobuchar also toured the area, describing the damage in a single word: “devastating.”

“When you see these houses, people’s lives, literally leveled; little red wagons lying in the ditch. A picture of a woman and her dog ... on top of a roof on the ground. That’s what we were seeing,” Klobuchar said. “And as we were driving out, you could see the residents driving in, some of them not having seen the damage to their homes ever, because they were out or gone when this happened,”

She and Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., had spoken with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Administration earlier Monday. A FEMA team was on its way from that agency to survey the damage.

In order for the president to declare a disaster, there typically must be $5 to $6 million in damage to public infrastructure during an incident, Klobuchar’s office said. She  spoke of the swift and strong response by local and state emergency officials after the tornado hit at 5:03 p.m., and compared it with other disasters in the state.

“We saw it in (the Ham Lake fire in northern Minnesota), we saw it in southeastern Minnesota, we saw it when the I-35W bridge came down,” Klobuchar said. “This is Minnesota at its best. Our hearts go out to the families and we’ll do everything we can to help.”
Post 9/11 emergency plan

The county and the city put into effect an emergency plan that had been decided after 9-11, and Oneka Elementary School was the planned destination for evacuees.

Destruction was everywhere. Entire houses had been pulled out of neighborhoods by the storm, while those next door looked untouched.

Boats were on their sides, large homes blown apart, lying in pieces; one house had a bedroom sheared off, with clothes still in the closet on the second floor.

Toys were perched in trees as rescue dogs prowl below, looking for victims.

Pink numbers have been sprayed on garages to show when residents evacuated. Trees have been sheered off.

“Some of these look like a bomb went off,.” Dean said.

Some wreckage is so bad that clothing was wound through boards and shingles, like someone put them in a giant washing machines. Dozens and dozens of emergency personnel are on the scene.

The home of Tim and Pam Gabrio was moderately damaged. Many of their possessions are in a pond out behind the house they have lived in for two years.

Tim Gabrio said, “ I heard glass breaking. It got really noisy. I saw things flying around.”

They ran and hid in a bathroom. They estimated the tornado came and went in 1 minute.

Tim, a disabled Vietnam veteran,  was slated to be at Fort Snelling today with his rifle squad.

Staff writer Herón Márquez Estrada contributed to this report.