Taking shelter and assessing damage after Spiritwood EF3 tornado: Karla’s story from Summer of Tornadoes documentary

SPIRITWOOD, N.D. (KFYR) - [Excerpt from the Summer of Tornadoes documentary. Watch in full HERE.]

The Spiritwood EF3 tornado, on June 20, 2025, arced around the area for 8.6 miles with peak winds of 155 mph and a max width of more than a half mile, impacting Karla Meikle’s family farm and several others.

“I am originally from the Spiritwood area, and my mom still lives on the family farm,” said Meikle. “I usually try to make it back at least a couple times a month, and it just so happened that this particular Friday, I was headed back to the farm because mom and I were headed to a wedding in Minnesota.

“Leading up to that particular day, you had watched the news and stuff, and you had seen all of your warnings that you all had put out. So, we knew there was a potential of bad weather, but that day I left Bismarck, and it didn’t look bad; it looked like a normal day. I’m a faithful news watcher, and so we were watching all the alerts, we saw things on social media, so we were being weather aware, I guess.

“We had run into Jamestown and had some dinner, and then decided we’d better get home because the clouds were moving in pretty quickly, and they were getting dark. So, we got home, and we got in the garage and then stood outside, like all people do, and watched the clouds just start to roll, and it got scary real quick.

“So, mom and I went down to the basement, and we were watching TV, trying to watch warnings and such because we didn’t know how close, you know, when the clouds are moving in, exactly how close are they? And you just don’t know.

“And the electricity went out, and then you could hear the wind picking up. And so, we hit the hallway, and after things started moving around outside, you could hear things hitting the house. And so I’m like, maybe we should get in the shower. And so, we got into the bathroom and into the shower, which is all cinder block shower, and we hid out in there.

“And it was scary because you didn’t know, as you’re standing there, what we were going to walk up the stairs to find. We had no clue what was happening above us. And it was just the wind, it just growled, not like the freight train noise that you hear, but it did just growl. And the noise of things hitting the house was scary.

“It felt like an eternity, and yet it was over within just minutes. And that was probably what was scariest, because like I said, you’re downstairs, you don’t know what’s going on. And you are anticipating the best, but you know what’s going on.

“And so, when we went upstairs after things seemed to calm down, we looked down across the yard, and we had a pig barn that housed about 2,000 hogs at one time. We haven’t been in that business for a long time, but it was mostly gone. The grain bins were gone. We had a dryer shed, it was gone. Our old feed shed was gone. And it was like there was debris, but where those buildings specifically sat, nothing. You couldn’t even tell there was a building there. It was just a cement slab.

“It was kind of freaky, really, you know, eerie, maybe is the better word. We were lucky that the house was still standing. We had the house left, we had a shop, and our Morton building was still standing. Otherwise, every other structure on our farm was gone. We looked over, and our neighbor’s house was completely gone. She was in the basement with her dogs. She was not hurt, so they were able to get her out of the basement. But to know that we could have lost absolutely everything, I mean, we lost a lot, but we could have lost a lot more. And so, to have the house that I grew up in, and to be able to say that I’m safe, my mom and I are still here, is really something that you know you look back on, and we’re really fortunate.

“The next day, we were out, and we were cleaning up, and I found a chair lying just really close to where our dryer shed used to be. I set the chair up on the cement slab, and I just sat there and looked around. It was sad. It wasn’t the same place that I knew growing up, and I knew that things wouldn’t be the same. And, again, just one of those eerie feelings that you just, you know, you have to comprehend like it’s something new now.

“The cleanup process and finding little things all over, that was hard. They were finding pieces of some of our buildings over two or three miles away, so that was pretty scary. But you did, you found just different things. Of all things, since I work with 4H and Extension, I found a pen that said Burleigh County Extension. It was the oddest thing ever, but it made me smile. And there were things like some of my dad’s toys growing up, we found some of those things. A lot of it couldn’t be salvaged. But there were some things that we were able to find and keep back, so that was good.

“We had a nice, big crew that came out and helped with tree removal and debris removal. The young man who actually rents our land, he came down with his hired men and helped clean up debris out of the fields, because, of course, they still have to farm. And so, you know, when you find big pieces of tin and wood and everything out in the field, they helped do a lot of clean up.

“So, it was a lot of community, we’re thankful in North Dakota that we have great neighbors. And even the night of the tornado, there were people coming up our driveway just to make sure that we were okay. And that meant a lot. Our little stretch of the highway won’t ever be the same, but, yeah, it’s just the force of nature and how things can change on a dime here in North Dakota, or anywhere, really.

“Don’t mistake the wrath of what Mother Nature can do. And I think that’s a big one that came out of this after the storm. Any other time that there was a level one or level two that popped up, not going to lie, a little PTSD. You know, things would be going on, I’d be like, I need to get home, I need to get my car in the garage, and I need to get someplace safe. And it was probably just a small thunderstorm coming through, but that’s where your mind goes because you don’t want to live it again. And so, you think the worst, and you prepare for it just because you’ve been there. And I think that’s probably what I don’t take for granted anymore. So, the weather, definitely paying attention all the time, just because, like I said, it can turn on a dime, and it’s nothing to mess around with.”

Click here for our full story with the Hovdas, who were also impacted by the Spiritwood tornado and included in the documentary.