Taopi mayor: ‘Families are back where they belong’ two years after tornado
Thursday’s statewide tornado drills have new meaning for the 60-some people who live in the tiny town of Taopi in southeastern Minnesota.
On the evening of April 12, 2022, an EF2 tornado touched down, destroying and damaging all but a handful of buildings with winds up to 130 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service. The storm caused more than $1 million in damage.
Today, the town about 20 miles southeast of Austin looks a lot different.
“Most of our families are all back,” Taopi Mayor Mary Huntley told MPR News during Minnesota’s Severe Weather Awareness Week. “There’s six brand new homes built from scratch. And then the other homes that were damaged are back and livable, complete renovations and were rebuilt.”
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The city is getting ready to build city hall and the township hall is under construction, she said.
Donations began flooding in the morning after the tornado and fundraisers proved successful. But the money paled in comparison to the hope it brought the town, Huntley said.
“Of course, you can imagine there was tears and grief. But when just strangers reached out to help so much, you know, it told those people — especially the ones losing their homes — this is worth staying, people care about us. So they stayed right there and rebuilt,” Huntley said.
Huntley says the trauma increased the community’s sensitivity to the weather. Many were caught off guard by the 2022 twister and didn’t have basements. But with rebuilding came improvements and storm shelters. Now, the town is ready to face increasingly strong storms driven by climate change.
On Thursday, tornado sirens will sound at 1:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Taopi doesn’t have a siren but people do receive alerts on their phones, Huntley said.
Learn more about Severe Weather Awareness Week in Minnesota and Wisconsin from the National Weather Service.
