An early-morning storm Monday ripped through the area uprooting trees, scattering debris all over town and leaving more than 2,000 residents are without power.
Ursula VanHeel stood at the end of her driveway around 10 a.m. assessing the heavy damage on her property. A row of seven trees had completely uprooted, trapping two vehicles underneath.
“One is ruined for sure,” she said.
In the 20 years VanHeel has lived in her home, she said she's never experienced a storm like Monday's.
“I'm just thankful everyone is OK,” she said.
Around 1:30 a.m., wind gusts of 55 miles per hour were recorded at the airport, but Bryan Howell, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Duluth, said very little information was available because equipment was damaged in the storm.
“We have a technician on his way up there right now,” he told The Journal.
Meteorologists predicted the storm would track further west and saw a slight chance of it making its way over the Koochiching County line.
“The models were kind of developing storms up there and we weren't sure if they'd hold together,” he said. “It was still packing a punch when it came through International Falls.”
Rainy Lake Medical Center lost power for about four hours, however, patient care was not interrupted.
“Patients did not notice as our generators kicked in,” said Mickie Olson, marketing director. “Our phone system was out so cell phones were used in place of landlines. All was seamless through the storm.”
Officials at North Star Electric Co-op said most of their customers in the Rainy Lake and Van Lynn Road areas remained without power as of 11 a.m. Monday and were unsure of when it would be restored, but expected updates from crews in the field before noon.
Sheriff Perryn Hedlund said the Koochiching County Law Enforcement Center dispatch has had no report of injuries from the storm, but he and International Falls Street Commissioner Ted Brokaw urged people to avoid downed power lines and damaged trees.
As of about 10:30 Monday morning, Hedlund said dispatch had received 60 to 70 calls related to power lines and trees down.
"That's the main damage we're hearing about," he said.
He said he's heard of no reports of flooding.
The vast majority of calls related to the storm were from International Falls and Rainy Lake area residents reporting power outages and trees down across roads, Hedlund said. However, one call came from County Road 78, southwest of Littlefork, he noted.
Deputies are driving county roads checking for damage, and reports could provide more information about damage in the outlying areas later, he said.
Hedlund said he, like many area residents, was woke by the thunder and lightening, with high winds.
He said the power at his house went off about about 2 a.m. and came back on around 6.
International Falls' street crews were called in just after 2 a.m. this morning and are still going strong, Brokaw reported just after noon Monday.
He cautioned people to avoid power lines that appear down, and even trees that may have broken limbs.
"The tops of a lot of trees are weak, and you can't tell some are broke, a little breeze and those broken branches will come down," he said.
Brokaw said he began calling staff in just after 2 a.m. when they opened main roads blocked by trees and then began placing barricades at downed power lines.
With power outages came concerns about the sanitary sewer system, which had five lift stations out with lack of power.
"We had to put generators up and start piggy backing - pump one, unhook, and go to the next one, and keep going," he said.
Without operational lift stations, Brokaw said sewer would have backed up into residences.
"We kept everything flowing," he said, noting that much additional work was avoided with the generator piggy-back pumping. "We did not have to do that and I'm proud of the guys - they did well."
He noted that a few street lights were damaged, but he called it fortunate that more damage was not caused by the storm.
International Falls Fire and Ambulance Chief Adam Mannausau said he had a crew of 21 out handling mostly downed trees and power lines for about four hours.
Mannausau said he's crew saw mostly wind damage to trees and power lines, some of which caused damage to buildings and cars and other items. He said the damage was very widespread throughout the city and east toward the Rainy Lake.
Clean up
Broken trees on city right of way, such as boulevards, can be reported to the city's Administration Office at 283-9484 as crews plan to begin removing them early Tuesday, Brokaw said.
He said city crews won't be able to assist in removing trees from private property.
"My week's schedule is pretty well screwed up," he said, adding crews haven't yet had time to clean up Smokey Bear Park after the International Falls Bass Championship.
Brokaw said it appears that the very dry conditions, giving way to lots of rain starting Friday and into Sunday, likely assisted in some of the trees toppling.
