September 5, 2017 at 3:32 p.m.
Briards survive close encounter with tornado
Katherine Briard pinpoints the spot in the family’s pasture where she, her younger sister, and a friend from school sought protection from the rotating mass above them. They took shelter beside a hill and laid flat on the ground with their arms over their heads. Katherine peeked underneath her arm and saw what she described as a “whirlwind” overhead. (photo by Kristen J. Kubisiak)
Katherine Briard, 16, and Emma Briard, 8, were bringing hay to a sick cow around 4 o'clock on Friday, July 11, when they found themselves at the mercy of a hostile wind. Also accompanying the sisters out to the pasture was Katherine's friend, Emily.
Although there were severe weather reports in parts of Becker and Otter Tail counties earlier in the day, when the girls headed out to the farmyard pasture, the warnings had expired.
"It was bright outside and not a cloud in the sky," Wendy Briard said. "But (shortly after the girls left) the wind picked up and started blowing sand and dirt into the house through the open front door."
The front entryway was a mess; pictures were down and the screen door was blown in. With renewed concern, Briard made sure her other children - Daniel, 14; Caleb, 12; Everett, 10; Jacob, 7; Lance, 5; Helen, 3; and Ethan, 2 - were out of harm's way.
"I put the young ones in the basement," she said. "The boys were with their father and I told them to come home."
Back upstairs, Briard hollered for her missing children.
"When I looked outside, nothing looked really wrong," she said. "The sky wasn't black and I didn't see any funnel clouds. But all of a sudden the silo fell down and calf hutches started flying across the yard. I even saw one fly over the barn."
Meanwhile, the pasture-bound girls continued on their mission, undaunted.
"We weren't paying too much attention to the wind because we get a lot of wind out here - there aren't a lot of trees," Katherine Briard said. "But after a while, it was blasting us with sand so hard it hurt. It felt like someone slapping you."
They took shelter beside a hill and laid flat on the ground with their arms over their heads. Katherine peeked underneath her arm and saw what she described as a "whirlwind" overhead.
"I was really scared," Emma Briard said.
After about five minutes, the winds dissipated, leaving sand and dirt to settle back onto the ground. Katherine didn't realize what had happened until she heard her mother hollering frantically, about 300 to 400 feet away, near the house. What she saw once she got back into the yard surprised her.
"I looked around and calves were running all over the place, calf hutches were everywhere; the silo was down; the roof was off the shop ... and my mom was crying," Katherine said.
Despite the damage that occurred on their farm, the Briards felt pretty fortunate.
"Thank God no one was hurt," Wendy said. "We were also lucky that the silo was empty, the milking barn was untouched, and we still had power in all of our buildings so we could milk cows as usual. If the silo had fallen differently it could have hurt or killed the cows and that would have been much more devastating to the farm."
The Briards milk 100 cows and crop farm 700 acres on their Becker County dairy operation.
One calf sustained a shoulder injury during the storm and one chicken was killed.
"We think the chicken was hit by a calf hut that was blown loose," Wendy Briard said.
After everyone was safe and accounted for, the Briards had a lot of clean up to do and calf huts to collect. About eight of the stake-secured domes were scattered across the yard, along with straw and other debris. The Briards figured about 30 trees were also taken out by the tornado.
"One thing is for sure," Forrest Briard said. "After what I've seen, I'm never again going to underestimate what a tornado can do."[[In-content Ad]]
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