"Cyclone!"

On April 14, 1886, a really terrible tornado ripped thru St Cloud, Sauk Rapids, Rice and Buckman, Minnesota.  Grandpa Anton claimed his eye-sight was never the same after he was caught outside during the storm.  He was 6 years old.

The storm devastated Sauk Rapids, but did great damage in St Cloud, too:

 I wonder--where in the city was this taken?  There are RR tracks (lower left), and the land rises to the horizon.  The tracks might have been the east-west route thru St Cloud, so this view would be looking north-west?

Amazing that some concerns benifitted from the storm, as this quote from St Johns/St Bens VIVARUIM explains--

Despite the fact that the new St. Benedict's Hospital boasted of a modern heating system, an operating room, two private rooms, wards, and a kitchen, only ten patients were received during the first two months. The sisters began to worry about their hospital project until a cyclone swept over St. Cloud and the neighboring towns killing 58 and injuring hundreds. It wrecked all in its wake but the hospital which became the center for rescue work. The sisters toiled for 48 hours before relief came from the Twin Cities and neighboring towns. The catastrophe broke down the prejudice against hospitals and, thereafter, St. Benedict's Hospital did not lack patients; at the close of the second year of service, the number of patients received reached 400. When over-crowded conditions forced the sisters to build a new hospital, St. Benedict's Hospital (we knew it as St Raphaels) was converted to an academy of art and music.

Oh!  If you'd like to view a map of St Cloud 10 years after the cyclone,  CLICK HERE and use the zoom button, top left.  Looks like the city re-built pretty fast.