Associated Press Writer

By DAVE KOLPACKBy DAVE KOLPACK

NORTHWOOD - They huddled in a corner and prayed.

"We were crying. We thought we were going to go," Russell Melfald said in tears, after the mobile home belonging to him and his wife, Verna, was damaged by a tornado packing winds of up to 170 mph. The roof was torn off on half the home, but Melfald said he and his wife never left.

"I've got no place else to go,"' he said.

One person was killed and 18 others injured in the Sunday night twister that left Northwood, a town of about 950 people southwest of Grand Forks, in ruins. Gov. John Hoeven issued an emergency declaration and ordered the National Guard to help with cleanup.

Forecasters said North Dakota could get more severe weather Monday, due to a mass of warm, unstable air followed by a strong cold front.

State Insurance Commissioner Jim Poolman said the hardest-hit building in Northwood was the school, which he said suffered "well over $1 million" in damage. The roof was torn off and water was inside the classrooms.

Monday was supposed to be the first day of classes for the school year. Classes were canceled for the rest of the week.

The Guenthner Super Valu grocery store and Agvise Laboratories, which provides soil testing and plant analysis and is one of the city's major employers, also were damaged.

National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Gust said the tornado winds were in the range of 150 mph to 170 mph, and the twister was nearly a mile wide. It struck shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday.

Grand Forks County Sheriff Dan Hill said Larry Weisz, 57, a resident of the mobile home park on the north side of town, was killed after he was pinned between the base of a mobile home and a tree. The injuries of 18 others were not considered life-threatening, officials said.

"On the way into town, I saw a lot of incredible sights that just floored me," Hill said. "There were cars that looked like they went through a crusher."

Wreckage and fallen power lines blocked streets. Electricity was cut off to the entire city as a precaution, and authorities set up barricades to keep people out of the town.

"The city is not safe right now," Hill said late in the morning.

"This town is a mess. This town is a disaster," said Kevin Dean, a spokesman for the town's emergency operations center said early Monday. "There's virtually nothing … that hasn't been damaged."

As the day wore on, the extent of the damage started to sink in for Northwood residents.

Amy Mastrud fought back tears. She said a tree fell on her house and the windows were blown out.

"It's starting to hit me, the more I look at it," she said.

She had huddled with her three children in the basement during the storm, she said.

Kent Gronlie, who lives seven miles northeast of Northwood, said he found debris in his yard.

Residents of the town's health center, which includes a small hospital and a 77-bed nursing home, were moved into corridors before the storm struck and none was injured, said nursing director Carla Sletten. Windows were broken on one side of the nursing home, she said.

Mayor Richard Johnson said officials have received offers of assistance from towns throughout North Dakota.