Sunday, March 29, 1998
A warm sunny day which turned out to be the 2nd time the college was under siege by nature's power. A tornado swept in and wiped out 90% of all windows on campus, demolished the Swedish house plus many other campus homes, ravaged St. Peter, and left the town with one casualty on that day. Gustavus campus was very fortunate that most of the students had already left for spring break the Friday before. The weeks and months ahead for Gustavus employees were filled with phone calling, debris pick up, repairing broken homes, returning to offices that were heavily damaged, or not returning to buildings at all that were deemed unsafe by FEMA. It was an event this blogger will never forget!
The tornado of Sunday, June 22, 1924 was equally as devastating for the town and college.
Fascinating fact is each tornado hit on a Sunday nearly the exact same time of day!
You can find more information about each tornado by reading the St. Peter Herald from the previous event dates in microfilm form at the library. Another way to find out information regarding the tornados is using the College Archives Manuscript Collection (CAMC) https://gustavus.edu/library/archives/college/
Reminder: with the warm spring weather it is advisable to "keep your eye to the sky" and beware of emerging weather changes.
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