Nearly four dozen train cars were knocked off a track in North Dakota by powerful tornadic winds, part of a storm system that triggered reports of five tornadoes across the Dakotas.
According to BNSF Railway spokesperson Kendall Sloan, the incident occurred Wednesday night near Steele, North Dakota. A train had stopped due to a tornado warning when high winds caused 43 empty coal cars to derail.
Fortunately, there were no injuries, and no hazardous materials were involved, Sloan confirmed via email. BNSF cleanup crews were on-site Thursday to address the situation.
The National Weather Service in Bismarck, North Dakota, confirmed that a tornado touched down near Steele around 8 p.m. Wednesday. Another tornado was reported earlier at 5:40 p.m. southwest of Selfridge, North Dakota, in the Standing Rock Tribal Nation.
Additionally, three possible tornadoes were reported in north-central South Dakota on Wednesday night. While no injuries were reported, survey crews were still working to determine if the damage in South Dakota was indeed caused by tornadoes.
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Although the severe weather was moving out of the Dakotas, the weather service indicated that strong thunderstorms could still occur in Minnesota, parts of Iowa, and Wisconsin on Thursday.
