National Guardsmen were on duty in several Minnesota towns Wednesday after tornadoes hit four Midwestern states, leveling a housing development and scattering hazardous farm chemicals. More than 50 people were injured.

"I thought we were going to die," said Dan Gunnink, a resident of Chandler, Minn., who lost his house. "We thought it was all over. We were praying for our lives."Severe thunderstorms unleashed numerous twisters - along with heavy rain - Tuesday afternoon and evening in Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa.

Tornadoes also had raked parts of the Plains on Monday.

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The hardest-hit state was Minnesota, where Tuesday's storms cut a large area of damage across the southwestern and central areas of the state.

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