Three deaths, extensive damage, and widespread loss of power from Friday’s tornado and severe weather outbreak prompted Governor Kelly Armstrong to declare a statewide disaster at 1:47 p.m. Saturday and activate emergency operations throughout North Dakota.
Several tornadoes were spotted near Spiritwood, ND Friday evening, starting at approximately 8:30 p.m., traveling east.
The Cass County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that two men and one woman died in the Enderlin, North Dakota area, located about 56 miles southeast of Jamestown. At 11:40 p.m. on Friday, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to rural Enderlin after storm chasers discovered two victims in a home completely destroyed with its basement exposed, while a third person was found by the Enderlin Sheldon Fire Department amid what officials described as “extensive damage to the area.”
The severe weather began Friday evening when strong thunderstorms known as supercells formed in central North Dakota, starting the evening with a violent hailstorm–with ice chunks as large as softballs–that cracked windshields and caused significant damage to property, before moving east toward Minnesota. The storm system then developed into what meteorologists call a derecho—a widespread, long-lasting windstorm that can be as destructive as a tornado.
Timothy Lynch, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, called it one of the largest and strongest weather events he’s witnessed in his decade of service. His office received multiple tornado reports across three counties, with wind speeds reaching up to 112 miles per hour.
Sheriff Jesse Jahner noted that the nighttime tornado strike likely contributed to the fatalities. “When you can’t see the thing coming, and the next thing you know the winds are high, it doesn’t give you a lot of probably, you know, potential for a response time,” he said during a Saturday morning news conference. The storm system destroyed approximately 10 homes in the Enderlin area, with dramatic images showing houses reduced to their foundations and a train derailed and overturned in a nearby field.

Softball-sized hail reported near Jamestown’s Stutsman County Fairgrounds at 8:30 p.m. Friday, June 20
Jamestown saw extensive damage to trees, which caused damage to adjacent property.
Around 40,000 properties in North Dakota and Minnesota reported loss of power in the hours after the storm. Otter Tail’s power outage map shows approximately 8,300 Jamestown and surrounding area properties are still without power as of 2:30 p.m. Several powerlines are reported to be down as a result of the storm, and residents are asked to keep their distance from them, as they are extremely dangerous.
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