The Tornado that Blew Us All Away

Miriya Nguyen

Oct. 1 blog post 

Hugo residents stand in the aftermath of the 2008 tornado (Image credits: Tom Weber)

I’ve always thought of Hugo, MN as a pretty safe place to live, but every time I hear the storm sirens or see a tornado watch alert on my phone, I find myself thinking back to the tornado of 2008. I was only three months old on May 25, 2008 when an EF-3 tornado touched down about three miles north of my house, but it’s a big part of my city’s local history. 

Tornadoes are funnel-shaped storms with extremely intense, spinning winds, formed from thunderstorms. They’re measured on a scale that takes into account their wind speed and damage they cause (“Tornado Basics”). The tornado that struck my home city had a peak wind speed of 165 mph, and it was listed as a severe tornado. 

(Image credit: Paul Dols)

I don’t remember the evening the tornado struck, but I talked to my parents, and they both recalled it vividly. They mentioned the high wind speed, of course, but also the heavy hail that came with the storm. My dad said, “What I remember is that the hail came hard. It sounded like a shotgun shooting against the side of the house. The driveway was just white as if it were snow.” My mom described walking around the house after the storm, noticing how our plants in the front garden had been damaged by the hail, which was the size of golf balls. There were reports of hail remaining for 20 hours after the storm (Nelson). In total, nine people were injured and one person, a toddler, died. Around 150 homes were damaged by the storm (Miron). My family was lucky; the worst of the storm had missed us. This tornado remains in my city's collective memory, and I know I'm not the only Hugo resident who worries when threats of a tornado appear during a storm.

Sources:

Miron, Michelle. “5/28 — Hugo Tornado Leaves 2-Year-Old Dead.” Press Publications, 29 May 2008, www.presspubs.com/white_bear/news/5-28-hugo-tornado-leaves-2-year-old-dead/article_c71ed392-

386c-5550-947d-dc912ca3f1f6.html.

Nelson, Joe. “It’s Been 10 Years since the Devastating Hugo Tornado.” Bring Me the News, 25 May 2018, bringmethenews.com/minnesota-lifestyle/its-been-10-years-since-the-devastating-hugo-minnesota-tornado.

Summary of May 25, 2008 Hugo Tornado. National Weather Service, www.weather.gov/mpx/20080525_Hugo_Tornado.

“Tornado Basics.” NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, NOAA, 2015, www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/tornadoes/.