WATFORD CITY, N.D. — Support is pouring in for victims of a tornado that tore through a city in western North Dakota’s oil patch, including for a couple whose week-old baby died in the storm.
The early Tuesday twister that hit Watford City destroyed 122 structures and damaged about 200 more, though about 120 are still habitable, Mike Nowatzki, spokesman for Gov. Doug Burgum, said Wednesday.
The storm injured more than two dozen people and killed the baby when it flipped his family’s trailer at the Prairie View recreational vehicle park. McKenzie County Sheriff Gary Schwartzenberger reported to Gov. Doug Burgum and other officials late Tuesday that the boy was the son of Marisa Reber and Will Maguire, according to The Bismarck Tribune.
A GoFundMe account set up for the couple showed more than 250 people had donated more than $14,200 as of early Wednesday.
National Weather Service meteorologist John Paul Martin classified the tornado as an EF2, which is defined by wind speeds between 111 and 135 mph. Wind speeds reached 127 mph in Watford City, damaging mobile homes and overturning campers in the RV park that sprung up during the recent oil boom. It wasn’t immediately clear if warning sirens sounded.
Schwartzenberger said the city of 6,500 people is “devastated.”
About 150 people went to the Watford City Civic Center where the Red Cross set up a shelter after the storm. About 60 people including 14 children remained there early Wednesday, according to spokeswoman Gretchen Hjelmstad.
“They’re just working back and forth from the RV park and the shelter, trying to salvage what they can and clean up what they can, and then just getting some good rest,” she said. “People are tired. They’ve really been through a lot.”
Donations of food, personal items and money have been steadily rolling in. The shelter is running out of space for the items and requesting only money donations from the public, Hjelmstad said. The shelter will remain open as long as needed.
