Tornado kills 3 in North Dakota as storms sweep U.S. Midwest

A tornado ripped through a rural area of North Dakota late Friday, killing three people and leaving behind severe damage as storms lashed parts of the upper Midwest.

Cass County officials said two men and a woman died in separate locations around the small town of Enderlin, about 60 kilometers southwest of Fargo. Thousands lost power, and multiple properties were damaged.

The National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed the tornado and said another one also touched down near Spiritwood, prompting North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong to issue a statewide disaster declaration.

The same storm system brought destructive winds, hail, and torrential rain to northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. In Bemidji, Minnesota, wind gusts reached up to 106 mph (171 kph), damaging homes, uprooting trees, and knocking out power. Officials warned residents to prepare for prolonged outages due to infrastructure damage.

Forecasters said the storm system, though weakening, was expected to continue eastward through lower Ontario and into upstate New York by Sunday, still carrying a threat of wind and hail.

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