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By Bob Kelleher
July 6, 1999
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RealAudio 3.0 |
Rescuers continued searching for campers injured and stranded in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness by Sunday's ferocious storms. The wind and rain downed trees and power lines across much of Northeastern Minnesota. Residents of Hibbing were assessing flood damage, while resorters on the Gunflint Trail were taking stock of damaged buildings.
MICKEY AND DOUG SCOTT own a cabin on Clearwater Lake, just off the Gunflint trail. Mickey Scott says she saw a low green, dark sky just before the storm hit Sunday. "Within a matter of five minutes, a huge wind picked up and the lake just became boiling," Scott said. "It was amazing, and we just couldn't even see across the lake any longer. And we all ran up into the cabin and a huge tree landed on our deck. And trees just kept coming down and kept coming down. We lost every large tree on our property."
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The storm packed straight-line winds and dropped six inches of rain; wreaking havoc from the Iron Range to Lake Superior's North Shore. Flash flooding damaged homes and undermined roads across Minnesota's three most northeastern counties. Further heavy rain Monday compounded the problems
Most of those injured were campers, struck by falling trees as they huddled under canoes or in tents in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. By Tuesday morning, 19 had been airlifted from the wilderness for medical treatment. Helicopters and float planes joined the rescue operations mounted by Lake and Cook County sheriff's departments. Rescue crews have special dispensation to use chain saws, normally banned in the wilderness area.
The Boundary Waters remain open, although access may be very difficult due to trees which have fallen onto campsites and canoe portages.
Meanwhile, the struggle to restore other services continues. Officials with the Arrowhead Electric Coop have help from three electric cooperatives and private contractors, but say rural customers should expect an extended outage. Arrowhead Electric's Rhonda Silence calls it the most extensive storm damage in recent history.
Charlotte Eckroot Nelson operates the Windigo Lodge on Poplar Lake, about halfway up the Gunflint Trail from Grand Marais. Nelson has been without power since Sunday. "We've had windows blow out," she says. "The rain came right in, we got them boarded up. Trees everywhere are down. The wind was very very severe. I wouldn't call it a tornado. I didn't see any funnel cloud at all, but it was very intense wind. Very, very strong. I've heard people comment it was like 100 miles per hour."
This is the busiest time of the year for Nelson and other resorters along the Gunflint Trail. Now they'll be scrambling to put their places back in shape for the rest of the brief summer-tourist season. Nelson says her the storm emptied her lodge.
State and county road crews have been trying to reopen flooded roads in Cook, Lake and St. Louis Counties. Highway 61 along Lake Superior's North Shore was underwater for a time between Duluth and Two Harbors. The Hibbing and Virginia areas took the worst of the flooding. Officially there was up to six inches or rain, but unofficial reports are higher.
In Hibbing and Chisholm, the Red Cross has opened what it calls Family Services Centers. Emergency Service Director Chris Dahl says they've helped more than 75 people so far. Dahl says an early damage report found three homes destroyed, 32 with major damage and more than 50 with minor damage. Those numbers are likely to increase. Dahl says many victims do not have flood insurance because flooding is rare in the area.
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