ALGONA — The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado touched down southwest of Hobarton on Tuesday, Sept. 4, around 3:45 p.m.
The tornado tore one-half of a hog barns roof. In addition, power poles were down and electrical lines were lying across the road. The storm also produced as much as four inches of rain that deluged the city of Algona.
During the storm, Ron Kerkhoff, Roger Samp and other members of the Smithfield Feedmill battled the torrential rainstorm to assist special needs children and four others in a bus.
The tornado warning was sounded and the sirens went off. The feed mill is hooked up to the Algona system. “Part of our procedure is to gather everyone into the feed mill break room,” Kerkhoff said. “While we were doing that, employees at the scale house called and said there was a bus with handicapped children.”
For more on this story, please see the September 13th issue of the Kossuth County Advance