Thunderstorm Wind in Mower County, Minnesota

A line of intense thunderstorms swept through southeast Minnesota with two distinct downburst damage paths.The northern track hit southern Wabasha County and then passed through central Winona County hitting the city of Winona directly. Thousands of trees were knocked down from wind gusts of 70 to 90 mph, along with power lines down and sporadic property damage.The southern track was more intense and passed from Austin through Fillmore and Houston Counties before crossing into Wisconsin. The City of Austin has widespread property and tree damage with power loss to almost the entire city for over 24 hours. Many streets in town were impassable due to the downed trees and power lines. A furniture store downtown sustained heavy damage when a brick wall collapsed. The courthouse also was damaged. The Cedar River also rose quickly and caused minor damage in Austin.There were reports of large hail and hundreds of trees down as the line of storms moved east from Austin and hit Spring Valley and Harmony. Many buildings were also damaged. Near the Mississippi River, the community of Brownsville nearly lost every tree in town from estimated wind gusts over 100 mph.Six southeast Minnesota counties were declared Federal Disaster areas with estimated damage costs exceeding 8 Million dollars in Mower County (Austin) alone. Other damage estimates included $1.2 Million in Winona County, $550,000 in Olmsted County, $250,000 in Wabasha County, $126, 000 in Houston County, and $100,000 in Fillmore County.