Three people are dead and a regional airport has been heavily damaged after powerful winds including a tornado swept across the upper U.S. Midwest.

Three people are dead in North Dakota, and tens of thousands are without power in northern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin after powerful winds swept across the upper Midwest Friday and overnight Saturday.

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.