Lustre News

Submitted July 24, 2024

Tornado warnings were issued at 6:47 p.m. on Friday July 12, for the northeast Montana, including Lustre, Larslan, Opheim, Richland and points east. Several of our Lustre Grade School children live up in those areas. The tornado path centered near a farm located around five miles southeast of Baylor where smaller sections of roofs came off the smaller out buildings.

According to the Iowa Environmental Mesonet of Iowa, an EF Tornado with peak winds of 80-85 miles per hour, was confirmed 4.3 miles east/southeast of Baylor, and traveled in an average path of 20-25 yards for 17.25 miles to Larslan. It touched down at 7:10 and ended at 7:40 p.m., 7.5 miles east of Larslan, near MT State Highway 24. The most damage was at Jake and Jessica Laycock's farm with portions of roofs torn from out buildings and debris in two areas, one 250 yards to the northeast. There were two tornados sighted by a number of eye witnesses, one which dissipated as the second one formed. It traveled in the grain fields and came near the home of Roy and Jodi Neufeld (the former Jake Neufeld farm), in Larslan. Other reports of sighting tornados came from Sarah Brown's boys, working up in their fields north of Lustre.

Hail accompanied the storm, and according to the Iowa State University, College of Agriculture in Ames, Iowa, their Doppler showed the hail to be grapefruit size.

Abby Olfert was baling up north on fields for her dad, and she'd been working all day. Her mom, Mindy Olfert, headed south to take a trailer to fill a need in Wolf Point, but her truck had a flat tire at the top of the hill near their place. So she walked home. Mindy later said, "That was a God-thing." Landon said to "go get Abby, instead. We've left her up there without a vehicle and it is already 6 p.m." Neither one had seen any weather statements. Abby called her mom, who was driving towards her, to tell her she had a tornado alert on her phone, and she could see two of them really close by. Mindy was 10 minutes away. The alert now came on Mindy's phone, and she hurried on gravel toward the bad weather. She and Abby secured things under the equipment before returning, and they could see the tornado following them in the rear-view mirror. As they came near to Curt and Lisa Neufeld's home, they called to warn them. "Look out your window!" Lisa was not home but offered her basement for shelter. They chose to keep going, and the tornado touched down near the Neufeld's home in the fields. They made it home safely. Yes, that flat tire was a God-thing!

The Republic of the Philippines National Authority for Child Care of Quezon City, Philippines, awarded a Certificate of Appreciation to Roberto G. Atienza, Jr. "for heartfelt message of support with the theme: 'Every Child Matters: A new Era in Adoption and Alternative Child Care. Your words of encouragement and support have deeply resonated, providing inspiration and hope to all those involved in the adoption & alternative child care journey'." Roberto was asked to speak on the Media Panel at the Golden Prince Hotel in Cebu City June 15, 2024. He "addressed the societal stigmas in the Philippines toward adoption, orphans and foundlings." He directs the Children's Shelter of Cebu with his wife, Heather, who grew up in Lustre.