County sees 8 to 12 tornadoes
Sarah Day — Staff WriterArticle Photos
WALTERS - A slow-moving storm produced multiple tornadoes in Faribault County on Sunday.
Sheriff Mike Gormley said he was doing some mowing at the new law enforcement center in Blue Earth when he saw the first rotation. That formation went back into the wall cloud.
He said tornadoes touched down in or near Easton, Walters, Wells and Kiester.
"We haven't done the counting yet," Gormley said. "(There were) roughly 8-12 touchdowns."
The storm was reported by the National Weather Service to be moving about 15 miles per hour. It appeared to hover over different towns for quite a while, which is why towns like Walters saw multiple tornado touchdowns. He said some of formations may have been the same funnels that came down, went back into the cloud and came back down.
"There were lots of these reforming," Gormley said.
Downed trees were the only damage he knew of Sunday evening, most of those in Walters.
"I haven't heard of any structural damage," Gormley said, adding that no injuries were reported yet either.
He noted that the tornado spotters throughout the county did a good job of getting out and communicating well ahead of any rotation or funnels.
"This is the most tornadoes we've had in a while," Gormley said. "That was probably the strangest part about it - it was so slow moving."


