It was shortly before 9 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 26, 2007, when the Night of Fury began and our city, Northwood, North Dakota, would be forever changed. 

An EF-4 tornado, nearly a  mile wide and 5 miles long, cut a devastating swath through our community, killing one resident and injuring 18 others.  There was widespread damage to our residential and business areas.  More than 90 percent of our homes, apartments and businesses were damaged or destroyed.  About  89 percent of our municipal buildings were  impacted.  Power, telephone and cable services were wiped out.  Cars and trucks were carried up to a half-mile away and slammed into corn and bean fields.  Our historic downtown was in shambles.  Our school was  destroyed.  Thousands of our beautiful trees were gone.

We were stunned. 

We were grieving. 

We were determined to save our city. 

Clean-up began with the dawn.  Help came from far and wide.  Together, we worked hard.   Not even a harsh North Dakota winter could stop us.  We were going to rebuild Northwood.  

Now, it’s one year later.  We still have work to do.  Yet, many of our homes are repaired or rebuilt.   There are new homes and apartments.  New families have joined our community.   Our fire station is rebuilt.   Construction of a new school is underway.  New development is on the horizon.  Our grocery store is rebuilt and reopened.  Two of our largest businesses have built back and are fully operational.   Many of our downtown businesses quickly repaired and are reopened.  More than 1,000 new trees have been planted.  Our hospital is adding an assisted-living wing.  Our downtown parks are restored and  improved.  Much of our municipal power system will be mitigated to better protect it against future storms. 

Our fields are lush again.  Our wounds are healing.  Our spirit is strong.  And we are coming back.

Thank you for being with us along the way.                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                         With love and gratitude,     ?    Northwood

 Please click on the links below to see the One-Year Anniversary Booklet or the fact sheet.

AnniversaryBooklet0808.pdf

Anniversary1-YearFactSheet.pdf

The following is a link to the Grand Forks Herald collection of articles regarding Northwood:

http://www.grandforksherald.com/collections/index.cfm?collection=northwood_tornado