A group of men and women line up in front of a building to get passes after the Fergus Falls Cyclone. The windows of the building are broken and debris sits on the ground.
Haakon Bjornaas (1884-1949), who was a photographer from Otter Tail County, and a friend walk through a forest of damaged trees. Many trees are blown down and all of the standing trees are missing branches.
Despite the fact that the new St. Benedict's Hospital boasted of a modern heating system, an operating room, two private rooms, wards, and a kitchen, only ten patients were received during the first two months. The sisters began to worry about their hospital project until a cyclone swept over St. Cloud and the neighboring towns killing 58 and injuring hundreds. It wrecked all in its wake but the hospital which became the center for rescue work. The sisters toiled for 48 hours before relief came from the Twin Cities and neighboring towns. The catastrophe broke down the prejudice against hospitals and, thereafter, St. Benedict's Hospital did not lack patients; at the close of the second year of service, the number of patients received reached 400. When over-crowded conditions forced the sisters to build a new hospital, St. Benedict's Hospital was converted to an academy of art and music (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives , McDonald, page 254).
Westward view of the devestation of a street in Sauk Rapids following the cyclone of 1886. Five men are standing in the foreground amongst the destruction.
View of the Benton County courthouse which was leveled by the cyclone of 1886. Some structures are left standing in the background, one of which is the Davis House.
View of the Benton County courthouse in ruins following the cyclone of 1886. A safe, chairs, storage shelves and bureaus are stacked close to a partially destroyed vault. A bent oak tree is prominently seen in the foreground on the right.