NEAR WANAMINGO, Minn. (KTTC)- Two days after storms devastated parts of the viewing area, families try to return to normal and the clean-up continues.
It hit them like a freight train.
"It was a complete white-out," explains Becky Friese. "The hail started, the wind...you couldn't see four feet in front of you. I headed to the basement and within sixty seconds it was done."
Severe weather ripped through Wanamingo Thursday, hitting the Friese family hard. It damaged buildings and tossed around equipment. Immediately after the storms passed, Becky says the community rallied together to help them out.
"Friends from town and our neighbors, everyone came out and started helping. It was pouring rain, we had calves running everywhere that were loose from our domes, we had heifers loose and we were collecting them and getting them in the barn and back in their pens, so everyone just pulled in and started picking up all the debris so we could get trucks in here."
Where trees used to be now sits an open area where Becky Friese jokes about now getting to see the neighbors.
A power outage forced the family to take special care of their cows.
"Well, we started at, I think, 10:30 PM with buckets and we got done at 5:30 in the morning when we finally had the pumps and everything working," says David Friese.
But in all of the destruction, their house still stands, an untouched flowerbed remains and their family is safe. It is something David Friese is thankful for.
"Yeah, we're pretty lucky, actually. It'll take awhile to get trees back, that's for sure. But they'll get there."
Becky Friese says that their neighbors stayed through the night to help with the initial clean-up and that their help is what will get their farm looking closer to normal.
