Tornado destroys over 100 RVs
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
An EF2 level tornado packing 127 mph winds along with heavy rain and hail that hit the Prairie View RV Park on the south side of Watford City during the early morning hours on Tuesday, July 10, resulted in the death of Blake Dean Maquire, the week-old son of William Maquire and Marisa Reber, when the family’s trailer home flipped in the storm, as well as injuring 25 other people, some with critical injuries.
The storm, which came with very little warning to the hundreds of residents of the RV park, completely destroyed nearly 100 trailers and sent dozens more tumbling like tumbleweeds through the Prairie View RV Park.
Scott McCoig, 36, of Detroit, Mich., was one of the lucky people to have escaped the park without injuries, but was witness to the tornado’s destructive power.
“The storm hit around 1:12 a.m. and it came really fast,” stated McCoig, who was living in a cabin at the RV park. “All I could hear was the rain and the hail. When I went outside to see what was happening, I saw 12 completely demolished RVs and one RV flip over. I jumped in my car and left.”
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