When Phil Hart woke up Thursday morning, the docks at his Lake Kabetogama resort were in place.

Already high water levels caused boats tied to the anchored structures to rattle around, but for the most part, it wasn’t quite 6 a.m. and everything seemed fine.

Then the wind picked up.

Gusting up to 45 miles per hour, Mother Nature sent winds out of the north with a straight shot to Pine Tree Cove Resort, carrying heavy debris and wiping out most of the docks in her path.

“It felt like a hurricane,” Hart said. “It’s weather we don’t normally see up here.”

Hart and his wife, Ellen, have owned the resort nestled along the northwest corner of the lake for 27 years. This is the first time he recalls seeing lake levels as high as they are. “We know how to prepare our docks and cabins for high waters, but combined with that wind, it’s unlike I’ve ever seen.”

Sunny skies and light winds Friday made it seem like Thursday’s storm never existed – until glancing at the destruction left behind.

Docks once fastened together floated around loosely, bumping against each other and blocking the resort’s only access ramp. The damage, Hart said shaking his head, is “catastrophic.”

“June is our busiest month,” he said. “We have a lot of loyal customers, but some are calling it quits because they don’t want to take their boats in and out everyday.”

Hart predicts rebuilding efforts will carry a price tag of more than $50,000. With a small resort, he said it’s a loss that will be difficult to make up.

And with the water still rising, Hart said he has now shifted his concern to the cabins.

“The front porches are only held up by stilts,” he explained. “If one of the dock sections floats over, it could knock it out.”

To err on the side of caution, Rick Oveson, a fellow resort owner, assisted Hart by operating a backhoe to pull dock sections out of the water Friday.

The strategy worked.

Monday, Hart reported to The Journal the water is coming up the foundation of the cabins, but for now, they’re safe.

“We have sandbags stacked about 4 feet high around the cabins and that is working,” he said. “We’re ready for business, just a little crippled without any docks.”