Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

 

I’ll never forget how humid the weather was that day 10 years ago — the day that in a matter of a few minutes, Freeborn County’s landscape changed.

Looking back, it was the first key that something was amiss in the air that day.

I was over at a friend’s house in the basement, watching the red on the radar on a local TV news channel come closer and closer to Albert Lea. The meteorologist talked about touchdowns of tornadoes in our area, and I knew that meant I would need to get ready to go out once the threat had passed.

The phone coverage was spotty after that, so it was difficult to keep up with our other staff members, but we all tried to go in different directions.

Our editor at the time, Tim Engstrom, drove down Freeborn County Road 46, straight to the major destruction that completely destroyed homes, and near Armstrong where we found out later that one woman had died.

I piled into Geri Murtaugh’s car, and we tried to go a different direction up near the Hollandale area. We had heard there was also damage there. Geri drove while I tried to navigate with a map. We saw some damage, but the darkness was setting in quickly so we decided to go back to Albert Lea.

The next morning, I woke up early and drove back to Hollandale to try to better see the damage as the sun rose before we went to press that morning.

North of Hollandale, I happened upon a home owned by Matt Luna and upon Hilltop Greenhouse & Farm that were both badly damaged.

Matt was kind enough to share his and his family’s experiences with me and talk with me about some of the memories he shared at their home.

Much of the house’s roof was destroyed as was a back portion of the home and most of the windows. Cars in Matt’s driveway were blown into a field, and multiple trees were uprooted. Three boats and a trailer were missing, and his storage sheds were destroyed.

The walls of his home that were still standing had the brick-red colored siding partially ripped off.

In the days and weeks that followed, Tribune staff and I interviewed dozens more Freeborn County residents whose lives were devastated from the tornadoes that struck our county that day, including Ron Woodside, whose wife, Kathy, died as a result of an EF4 tornado that passed over their home.

I have felt a connection to many people I have interviewed over the years, but I felt a strong connection with many of the people I interviewed from that experience.

I was proud then and I am still proud today that I was able to document that experience and the weeks that followed for our community, and that you trusted us with your stories.

I feel privileged as a journalist to have heard and told those experiences to all of you. It’s impossible to walk out of interviews like those and not be changed.

In the midst of the devastation and the heartache of destruction and loss, I was also  reminded of how wonderful our community is and how people rallied around each other in difficult times.

That is something I won’t be forgetting any time soon.

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Wednesday.