One Year Later: Part 1

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Editor’s note: This is the first in a six-part series on the June 17, 2010, tornado outbreak.

One year later, the landscape tells the story.

Warped trees signal to passersby where tornadoes struck. This spring, many of this trees are showing signs of life. They might be the worst-looking trees, but talk to the owners. They are glad to see them alive, kind of like the owners themselves are glad to be alive after narrowly escaping on June 17, 2010, what officials later said were 19 tornadoes in Freeborn, Faribault, Steele, Dodge and Blue Earth counties — seven in Freeborn County alone from three storm cells.

The tornado path reveals bent metal, debris, fallen timber and, most notably, new homes, repaired homes and now-vacant acreages.

The Albert Lea Tribune this week presents a six-part series, “One Year Later,” on the tornadoes of June 17. We start today by letting photographs of homes and former homes do the explaining.

Click here to see a gallery of aerial images from the June 17 tornadoes.
Click here to see a gallery of ground images from the June 17 tornadoes.
Click here to see the Tribune’s tornado coverage.