Our house is okay

[dreamshark]

Apparently the tornado touched down almost exactly 1 mile due east of my house, on the other side of I-35W.  I called thorintatge , who confirms that he was right there and never noticed a thing, not even the sirens going off.  From the online reports it sounds like quite a small tornado, but big enough to knock over a lot of big trees, many of which caused property damage when they landed. No reports of any people injured. The path of destruction is limited to a couple of blocks on either side of Portland. If I heard this correctly, it touched down at about 40th St. just east of the freeway and cruised slowly north at treetop level until it smacked right into the Lutheran Convention in progress downtown, and then suddenly vanished. No, really, that's just what the eyewitness said. Either God was Sending A  Message to the Lutherans, or we're all just lucky the Lutherans were there to dispel the funnel cloud with their piety.

I caught an online news report from intrepid TV reporters outside the Electric Fetus, which took significant damage. I'm pretty sure I heard one of them say that Mayor Ryback was on his way to the scene of the tragedy, being as how the Fetus is "one of his favorite stores."  *hee*  Seriously, I hope the store recovers - it's been a neighborhood fixture for as long as I've lived in Minneapolis, which is over 35 years. I hope Barb's house is okay. And syndicated 's former home on Portland, which I think he sold to somebody I vaguely know.

Comments

[pameladean]

Oh good, I was going to offer to go look.

P.

[sraun]

And skzb's former home on Portland, which I think he sold to somebody I vaguely know.

Ryan then sold it to his brother, and is now living in England.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

John (Ryan's brother posted something in LJ saying that they'd gotten through the storm just fine, but I also think he mentioned something about a tree going down in the backyard. Or maybe it was a neighbor's tree, since John doesn't have much of a backyard.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear you're all okay - and your house!

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear all is okay.

I've been getting confused reading the reports which focus on the 36th & Portland area, whereas the Electric Fetus is all the way up at Franklin, isn't it?

Did there used to be a store called Positively Fourth Street? If so, I think I merged it in my mind with the Electric Fetus. I tried to search on it, but all the hits lead to Dylan's song, of course.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Positively Fourth Street was over in Dinkytown - on Fourth Street SE of course. Not sure if it's still there. Electric Fetus (which I'm pretty sure was Minneapolis' first head shop) is at 4th Avenue and Franklin in south Minneapolis. I snickered when I saw it described as a "music and gift shop." It's a head shop, people! It was named after the cover of Zap Comics #1.

The tornado, or whatever it was, apparently formed at about 46th and Portland and moved north from there, hopping over the freeway intersection (I-94 and I-35W) to hit the Fetus and then continuing on downtown, where it hit the Lutheran Church and pretty much dissipated.

[emerdavid.livejournal.com]

I talked with Barb, and her house (her whole block) is just fine. The one saving grace about tornadoes is that their path is usually very narrow. One can destroy a house but leave its next-door neighbor untouched.