\u00a0WATFORD CITY, N.D. (AP) – The National Weather Service says the tornado that touched down at an oil patch worker camp was an EF-2.
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\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Preliminary information suggests the winds reached 120 mph.
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\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The weather service says a second brief tornado possibly occurred in the area based on eyewitness accounts.
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\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The twister touched down about 7:50 p.m. Monday at a worker camp with 15 trailers just south of Watford City, about 50 miles southeast of Williston.
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\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A 15-year-old girl, who was from out of state and visiting an aunt and uncle, was critically injured and is in intensive care at a Minot hospital.\u00a0 Eight other people were treated at a Watford City hospital for lesser injuries.
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\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The American Red Cross says eight residents spent the night at a shelter and that several families were among those displaced.
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BISMARCK, N.D. \u2013 Gov. Jack Dalrymple today extends his appreciation to state and local emergency responders who assisted the public following a tornado that struck a housing camp south of Watford City. The tornado reportedly injured nine people, including a 15-year-old girl who was transported to a regional hospital with serious injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cBetsy and I are keeping everyone affected by last night\u2019s tornado in our thoughts and prayers,\u201d Dalrymple said. \u201cState emergency personnel including the Highway Patrol are working closely with local officials to manage the storm response and to provide any needed assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tornado struck about 7:45 CDT, destroying about 12 trailers in a housing camp about six miles south of Watford City.\u00a0 The tornado also damaged several vehicles and downed nearby power lines.\u00a0 The North Dakota Department of Emergency Services assisted local officials in coordinating the storm response. Highway Patrol troopers also assisted at the scene.\u00a0 The American Red Cross opened an emergency shelter at the Watford City Civic Center.<\/p>\n
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Previously…<\/p>\n
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – An oil patch worker camp hit by a tornado in western North Dakota was a relatively small one, with only 15 trailers.
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\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Emergency Manager Jerry Samuelson says some in McKenzie County have hundreds of trailers – and he says it’s lucky one of those wasn’t hit. He says there could have been way more than the nine injuries reported at the camp that was hit Monday night, and a lot more damage.
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\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Target Logistics is the largest crew camp operator in North Dakota’s oil patch, with more than 5,000 workers in nine facilities.
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\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Company spokesman Travis Kelley says a weather radio is monitored by staff at each facility. If a tornado is reported in the area, workers are encouraged to come to centrally located common areas that have more protection.<\/p>\n
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Previously…<\/p>\n
WATFORD CITY, N.D. (AP) – A person critically injured when a tornado struck a worker camp in the western North Dakota oil patch has been identified as a 15-year-old girl.<\/p>\n
McKenzie County Emergency Manager Jerry Samuelson didn’t immediately release her name. He says she’s in critical condition at a Minot hospital but he doesn’t know the nature of her injuries.<\/p>\n
Samuelson says he doesn’t know why the girl was at the worker camp south of Watford City, but he says families do live at the camp.<\/p>\n
Eight other people were treated at a Watford City hospital for lesser injuries.<\/p>\n
The tornado that struck the camp about 5 miles south of Watford City on Monday destroyed eight trailers where workers lived.<\/p>\n
Samuelson says rescue crews are searching a large amount of debris, but he’s confident no one is missing. He says the camp where the tornado hit had quite a few more trailers just a few days ago, so the casualties could have been higher had it happened earlier.<\/p>\n
A National Weather Service team is heading to western North Dakota to assess the strength of the tornado.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0WATFORD CITY, N.D. (AP) – The National Weather Service says the tornado that touched down at an oil patch worker camp was an EF-2. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Preliminary information suggests the winds reached 120 mph. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The weather service says a second brief tornado possibly occurred in the area based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46528"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46531,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46528\/revisions\/46531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}