Suspected Tornado Derails 43 Train Cars in US Heartland

Tornadic winds knocked nearly four dozen train cars off a track in North Dakota, part of a storm system that spurred reports of five tornadoes across the Dakotas.

BNSF Railway spokesperson Kendall Sloan said a train was stopped due to a tornado warning Wednesday night near the town of Steele, North Dakota, when high winds caused 43 empty coal cars to derail.

No one was hurt, and no hazardous materials were in the cars, Sloan said in an email. BNSF cleanup crews were at the site on Thursday.

The National Weather Service in Bismarck, North Dakota, confirmed on Thursday that a tornado touched down near Steele around 8 p.m. Wednesday. The agency said another tornado touched down at 5:40 p.m. Wednesday southwest of Selfridge, North Dakota, on the Standing Rock Tribal Nation.

The weather service said three potential tornadoes also were reported in north-central South Dakota on Wednesday night. No injuries were reported. Survey crews were still working to confirm if damage in South Dakota was from tornadoes.

While bad weather was generally moving out of the Dakotas, severe thunderstorms were possible Thursday in Minnesota and parts of Iowa and Wisconsin, the weather service said.

The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.