WALCOTT - Residents here are remembering the 50th anniversary of a raging tornado that leveled homes, destroyed farm buildings and left two people dead.

"You never forget," said Wilfred Bakko, 88, who has kept a scrapbook with newspaper clippings from the tornado.

He and his family of six huddled under the basement stairs as the storm hit the evening of July 2, 1955.

After 20 minutes, they heard the voice of a neighbor who came to check on them.

When they emerged, their farmstead had been destroyed. The tornado had leveled their two-story house and all of the farm buildings, killed about a dozen dairy cows, and mangled vehicles and farm equipment.

The twister missed Walcott, about 30 miles southwest of Fargo.

But as it swept along a township road about a mile south of town, the devastation continued. It destroyed about a dozen other farm buildings, killed a baby and an elderly man, and injured several others.

Wayne Farsdale and his family were traveling for the Fourth of July holiday when the storm swept through. Farsdale, who was 14 at the time, said the family immediately returned when they heard his grandparents' home had been leveled.

Farsdale's grandfather, Helmer Bakko, 79, died. His grandmother, Birdie Bakko, was paralyzed from a spinal injury and never walked again.

The tornado sucked Farsdale's uncle, Belvin Bakko, out the window, but he survived.

At the Russell Nelson farm, 13-month-old Cecelia Fjelstad died and her 3-year-old sister Rebecca Fjelstad was severely injured. They were at the home of their grandparents when the tornado struck.

Everyone survived at the Conrad Jordheim farm, but the family was left homeless for months because of the tornado.

Barbara Blilie said her father hurried to get his pregnant wife and five kids in the car so they could drive away from the tornado in the pouring rain.

Blilie's grandfather refused to come along. Later, he changed his mind. He got in his car to escape the storm, and he made it just in time.