DOING THE MATH; SMALL-TOWN SCHOOLS; In Comfrey, a tornado helped preserve a school.(NEWS)(DOING THE MATH)

From: Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) | Date: December 22, 2002| Author: | Copyright information

Byline: James Walsh; Staff Writer

Comfrey, Minn. -- Comfrey may be the only place in America where the school was saved by a tornado.

Most locals acknowledge that with just 172 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, Comfrey's school probably would have disappeared by now, its students shipped off to neighboring districts - another victim of growing farms, dwindling farmers and fading rural economies.

But at 4:35 p.m. on March 29, 1998, a tornado changed that. It ripped through the school, flattened businesses, splintered homes and, somehow, filled a community ...

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