Rochester residents cleaning up after tornado

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]New at 9: Incredible video of tornado damage in Wisconsin just into the newsroom tonight. This is in the Wausau area. You can see that line of trees ripped down, several houses missing some or even all of their roof. A few structures have just been absolutely leveled. Quite a mess over there. On our side of the St. Croix, those in southeastern Minnesota are also recovering after four tornadoes ripped through there. You're getting a look now at one of them. This video sent our way by Jim Humble in Marion, just southeast of Rochester. And the morning after those tornadoes, the damage was far easier to see there in the Rochester area. The winds pulling the tops off of some houses, while others were untouched. Plenty of trees down and debris thrown all over. The National Weather Service has confirmed one of those four tornadoes yesterday was an EF2 tornado, touching down just south of Rochester. From there it moved north, damaging dozens of homes. Fox 9's Leon Purvis went out there today, finding neighbors doing what neighbors do after a tornado comes through. They're helping each other clean up.

[00:01:09]This is what's left after an EF2 tornado tore through this neighborhood off of Marion Road. Some homes missing roofs, even walls, torn apart in minutes. But just as quickly, neighbors are stepping in to help. My wife was in the living room and I I was in my bedroom and I heard a big crash. Gary Daley was home when the storm hit. He's okay. Now, a damaged roof and boarded-up windows are all that's left. Tornado had hit because the window's gone and the deck's gone. Others didn't fare as well. Some homes left exposed with walls and roofs completely gone. Saturday turning into a day of cleanup. Tree limbs stacked high, debris-filled dumpsters, and neighbors going yard to yard helping however they can. My husband and I got outside right away and started helping our next-door neighbor um just clean up her yard so it wasn't so overwhelming for her. Isabelle Sanchez was at work when the tornado hit. We were actually fortunate. We only had the tree fall on the house and the windows come out, but the house is still up. Whereas other people have been less fortunate, they they don't have roofs, they don't have walls. So all of their items are everywhere and just trying to help them collect their things and and make it easier for everybody. For her family, it's not just the damage. It's decades of memories scattered. My father was a single father growing up. He's This is his whole life. He worked everything for the house. So to see 20 years of of life kind of just everywhere, it's it's it sucks. The National Weather Service says that the tornado was on the ground for 14 minutes and traveled about 10 miles. In that time, dozens of homes were destroyed, but remarkably, officials say no injuries were reported in Rochester.

[00:03:02]Leon Purvis, Fox 9.