Remembering the devastation
20 June 1957 - a day etched into the history of Fargo which will not be forgotten. In the early evening a devasting tornado struck the north side of Fargo killing 10 , most of which were of a single family. (note: Death tolls have been listed as 10, 12 and 13 from various sources, I will go with a conservative count here.) More were injuried and there was upwards of $20 million in damage. T oday marks the 50th anniversary of this natural disaster. Indeed, the pictures and rememberances of it are not much different from recent tornados that have decimated areas in the United States, however the loss of life, injuries, and level of damage certainly give a more grave portrait. On learning about this storm Ted Fujita collected the storm data and photographs. His published findings in 1960 spawned further study of tornado prediction and advanced the forecasting of such storms. Eventually this information along with other tornadic data lead to the creation of the Fujita Scale in 1971 to rat...