While North Dakota sees an average of about 23 tornadoes a year, fatalities are rare, National Weather Service data indicates. The last tornado to claim three or more lives in the state was a July 4, 1978, storm that killed five people in Elgin. It was recorded as an F4.

At least three people were killed in a small North Dakota town as tornadoes ripped through the state. All three victims lived in Enderlin, a town of 800 residents about 40 miles southwest of Fargo, according to the Cass County sheriff’s office. They have been publicly identified only as two men and a woman.