Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, here comes a killer tornado plowing through the poorest section of your city, piling misery upon misery. The question is this: Can a storm like the one that shredded much of north Minneapolis on Sunday push an already demoralized community over a cliff?

You wouldn't worry so much if such a storm, tragic as it might be, had taken out an affluent suburb because the banks and insurance companies would ride to the rescue and people would have the confidence and wherewithal to rebuild.

But here? Sunday's tornado wiped out a swath of the few remaining assets the North Side had: its lush canopy of shade trees and its surprisingly fine stock of single-family homes. For all of its epic problems, the North Side had a relatively good set of bones that aspiring young homeowners found attractive. They had begun to gain a foothold, along with immigrant businesses and a few committed developers aided by public/private partners who had poured buckets of sweat and tears into positioning the North Side for reinvestment whenever the economy was ready to revive. Smart police work had even persuaded the "criminal element" to largely move on. There was light at the end of the tunnel, and the North Side was moving toward it.

But now this.

'A huge blow'
"We have such a challenge to get people to come to north Minneapolis," said City Council President Barbara Johnson, whose 4th Ward was one of the hardest-hit areas. "We have been doing such a good sales job. The volunteer efforts, the city help, the Family Housing funds, focusing every effort to get people to look at north Minneapolis with new eyes. So, this is just a huge blow.

"The ambience of the neighborhood has taken a beating. When you look at all these thousands of trees gone, and the homes with so much damage. I have to look at a positive aspect here. It's a relatively narrow swath and the housing stock remains on either side. People shouldn't think that the whole North Side was wiped out."

Indeed, a block away from the damage — or sometimes just across the street — you see no evidence of the terrible storm. I spoke with Johnson near the intersection of Broadway and 26th Avenue, our voices straining to be heard above the buzz of chain saws and the roar of trucks removing debris from the stricken blocks nearby.

"People have put so much into their homes, physically and emotionally," she said. "I sat yesterday with this young couple who bought a foreclosure at 36th and Emerson. It's a lovely home with built-in bookcases, a built-in buffet and a stained glass window at the top of the landing. But the second floor is gone and the roof is gone and the chimney has fallen into the dining room. They're urban pioneers on the block. And two doors down is another young couple who bought their first home on that block and their second story is gone, too. And what they're saying to each other is, 'If they condemn us, we want to be your next door neighbors the next place we go.' So, it's inspiring but heartbreaking. This will disrupt so many positive things that have happened, and I'm just so concerned about it."

Over a cliff?
Johnson, whose roots are sunk deep into north Minneapolis, was particularly moved by damage to the parks — especially Folwell, with its felled pines, and Webber, with its groves of cottonwoods blown down. "Webber Park was a beautiful park, and to see those trees uprooted, it's just tragic," she said.

I wondered if a storm like this one could push a whole section of the city over a cliff?

"I don't think so," Johnson said. "People will rally around this. People are committed to the community. It's going to take individual efforts to relocate within the community. But people feel strong ties; they really like it and they feel like they're a part of the neighborhood, and that's compelling. But it's going to be a one-by-one effort, I think, to keep people here.

"The mayor [R.T. Rybak] and I were walking through on Sunday night. A fair number of the houses that were damaged were already vacant or foreclosed and so I'm concerned that there will be a tight time line on fixing them. If banks own them or if ownership is unclear, we're going to have a problem with that, I think."

Will the banks step up?
I observed that governments may be hard-pressed to find the money to help rebuild, and that banks, while flush, may be reluctant to invest.

"The banks have a lot of money right now. We'll see if they're willing to help," she said. "It's going to take some time. The owners and landlords are going to have to find a way to do the repairs. People are under water on their mortgages and you wonder how people will be treated by insurance companies, if they have insurance. One lady the other night told me she called her landlord and he said 'call me back in three months.' Not all landlords are like that, but it's going to be very hard for many folks who are renters. Our housing stock has already been diminished by these foreclosures and board-ups, and it's going to get tighter."

I wondered if the effort would have to be folded into a larger strategy for rebuilding and repopulating the North Side — and whether there's a silver lining somewhere, whether a crisis will cause neighbors to pull together harder, not just in the immediate aftermath but over the long haul.

"Well, the silver lining is that people are really helping their neighbors," she said. "We are a great community, and that's being reinforced right now. People are helping their neighbors clean up yards. And neighbors are saying, 'Come stay with us so you can be close to your house.' It's wonderful to see the spirit of people offering each other so much help, but the extent of the damage is really very dramatic."

A fragile part of the city
I noted that police have reported almost no crime problems growing out of the disaster.

"That's because people are looking out for each other and the police are everywhere. I think people are stepping up to the problem," Johnson said.

"It's just so, so sad," she continued. "And so unfair. We've been hammered, and you wonder how many blows we can take. Up here we've lived through flipping, predatory lending, mortgage fraud, foreclosures and now this. You know, on my list of things that I worry about, a tornado wasn't even on the list.

"This is a fragile part of the city. Businesses are fragile; they live on a shoestring. Asian immigrant businesses, family businesses, people trying really hard. You wonder if some of them have insurance. It breaks your heart to see some of those buildings boarded up now after the storm. Sometimes these setbacks, you can't get beyond them. It's very tough."