Storm, high winds take toll on residents, campers

July 28--Tom Getchell was standing outside of his camper at Big Lake smoking a cigarette at 3 a.m. Thursday enjoying the quiet morning.

"It was nice and calm with some thunder and lightning," Getchell said. "Then the wind picked up."

Getchell went back into the camper to wake his wife, Nancy, and tell her they needed to take the kitchen pop-out -- including stove, refrigerator, microwave and television -- back in. As he stood there, about three feet from the kitchen, a tree fell and took the entire pop-out off the camper, leaving a picture-window sized hole in the wall.

"It was interesting," said the understated Getchell.

Mother Nature showed no mercy morphing a blistering hot Wednesday into a quick-moving storm with winds recorded up to 90 miles per hour in places early Thursday, July 21. Although Duluth and areas outside Carlton County were hit harder by the storm, one of the bigger pockets of storm damage locally seemed to be at the campground at Big Lake.

Trees at the campground looked like large toppled green dominoes crisscrossing the only road as well as lying on top of campers and vehicles unlucky enough to be in the path of the storm.

This was the scene that greeted campers at dawn's early light Thursday morning at Big Lake Shores Campground:

A pontoon boat lay on the shore of the lake with pontoons facing the sky, upside down. Nearby, a dock in the water was resting on its side.

As the campers bustled about clearing branches, several stopped to take photos and tell their stories.

Most of them had been awake since 3 a.m. comparing stories and looking at each others' damaged campers and branch-covered vehicles.

Small branches pierced the siding of a camper.

"I told my mom it looks like the tornado that went through Boulder Lake about 20 years ago," said Kim Ochocki, a seasonal camper of two years. "It's trees everywhere!"

Ochocki and her husband, Tom, had just moved their camper to a spot next to Getchell's site a few weeks earlier. Ochocki pointed to a tree stump near the camper and said the tree had fallen a few days after the last camper had left the site. She had been a little apprehensive about the new location, but her husband had no qualms, so they moved to the tree-surrounded spot for the shade.

"We liked it over here because it was shadier," said Ochocki laughing. "Not anymore!"

One of the five trees uprooted around Ochocki's camper landed on the corner of the roof of the camper, the rest surrounded the camper.

Across the narrow dirt road, a large tree had missed the camper but landed from front to back on the roof of a 2012 Kia Forte, crushing the roof. Owner Jon Linder bemoaned that his car only had 27,000 miles on it as he watched the tree get cut into pieces so he and helpers could push the remaining trunk off the crushed car roof.

As the morning warmed up and edged closer to noon, Bridgett Schrier made a fast-food run and zipped around in a golf cart to hand out breakfast sandwiches to the hungry campers. Most of them had been working clearing trees and cleaning up as soon as it was light out and had not stopped to eat.

The sound of buzzing and the smell of fresh sawdust permeated much of Cloquet and the surrounding area Thursday morning as residents and city crews cleared fallen trees off vehicles, houses and out of driveways.

All over Carlton and surrounding counties power crews worked to return power to thousands of people after power went out during the storm July 21. A heat wave added to the challenges.

Cloquet residents Carol and Art Gist waited 39 hours and 25 minutes for their power to come back on.

In order to cope, the Gists slept in the basement to stay cool and hauled potable water from Spafford Park. They used a generator to keep the refrigerator and freezer running.

"We ran errands to places where there was air conditioning and tried to keep a sense of humor and keep things in perspective," Carol said. "This could be a whole lot worse, so many lost so much more than just their power."

According to a press release, Minnesota Power brought in an extra 70 lineworkers from M.J. Electric and another 56 workers from St. Louis, Mo., who arrived last Friday to help with regional recovery.

"The additional resources will bring the total number of lineworkers involved in restoration efforts to 226 along with another 200 support staff including 30 tree removal crews," the press release stated. "Crews working 16-hour days have made steady progress and residents can expect to see crews and trucks in their neighborhoods throughout the weekend."

By late Friday, power had been restored to 21,000 of the 46,000 customers. An estimated 100 power poles were broken or damaged by the fast moving powerful storm.

Minnesota Power took a phased approach to solving the power problem.

"Public safety and critical infrastructure is the first priority," a spokesperson said. "Crews begin with the larger transmission lines, move to the primary distribution lines, then move into neighborhoods to repair individual services.

"This approach allows us to restore power to a larger number of customers as quickly as possible, helps to eliminate exposure to hazardous safety conditions such as low-hanging energized lines and allows us to restore critical loads such as hospitals and public safety as quickly as possible. Damaged transformers serving multiple customers are repaired first, then transformers serving individual customers."

Minnesota Power provides service within a 26,000 square mile area in northeast Minnesota with 144,000 customers and 16 municipalities.

More people reported having power back on Saturday morning, while others reported intermittent power outages as power was disconnected for a short time to make repairs, then reconnected.

The sound of chain saws has slowed and the piles of cut trees have grown since Thursday morning.

Eric Fagre cleaned up his pontoon, which had flipped upside down on Big Lake from the storm. He took off the crushed boat fence railing and has been toodling around the lake with it.

"People give me a hard time about it," said Fagre with a chuckle. "They call it a battery-powered raft."

Big Lake Shores Campground owner Bill Jaskari expected to be on his way to work at his day job in Duluth when he was notified of the chaos at the campground.

He changed his plans and spent the day helping clean up at the campground, as did his son Josh, who brought a crew of his friends in their 20s to haul branches and brush for about six hours Thursday afternoon.

Jaskari said power at the campground came back on at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. He estimated there were more than 20 trees down from the storm and plans to spend a few more weeks cleaning up tree debris.

As of Monday, there were still power lines down near the campground leading to two nearby seasonal homes.

While the buzz of chain saws may have slowed for many around Carlton County, that is not the case for Grover Tree Experts Inc.

The local business has received more than 400 calls since the storm, said Jeff Grover, adding that they try to stay close to home and help as many customers as they can. Because of the high call volume, Grover recommends people leave a text message with a photograph of the issue as well as a brief description. If it is not an emergency, the customer will be added to a growing list on a first-call, first-served basis.

Some customers call to be proactive with a tree that may be damaged or weakened but has not fallen on a structure yet, hoping to prevent the impending problem. They are added to the list, he said.

Grover showed up to a client's house in Cloquet just as a person was leaving. The customer said the man had been trying to convince the homeowner to hire him instead of a professional service. The homeowner refused, saying he had already called a tree service he has used before and has insurance.

"The homeowner assumes the risk if the worker is not insured," Grover cautioned.

Grover said his business was already backlogged from previous storms and have been working from 8 a.m. to about 7 p.m. this summer. They also recently rented a crane to take trees off of houses.

As of Tuesday only 20 Carlton County residents are still without power, according to the Minnesota Power outage map.

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Got storm debris?

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City of Cloquet residents may bring in their brush for free. Each residence may bring one pickup load of brush and tree debris including trunks to the Cloquet Public Works Department at 410 Armory Road from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7-11 a.m. Fridays. Call 218-879-6758 for more information.

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Don't live in Cloquet city limits? The Carlton County Transfer Station on Highway 210 takes all brush less than 8 inches in diameter for a small fee. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Check the Transfer Station price brochure on the Carlton County website for pricing.

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The WLSSD Yard Waste Compost Site at 27th Avenue W. in Duluth is accepting woody debris and brush. It will be open extended hours Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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The Brookston Transfer Station is another option. Their price for brush is $35 a ton.

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Burning brush? You may need a burning permit. Check with the local forestry office beforehand at 1604 Highway 33 S. in Cloquet, near Wal-Mart. Call 218-878-5640 to find out more.

DNR offers advice for dealing with storm damaged trees

Cleanup following a storm can be an overwhelming task for homeowners. Knowing which trees to save and which to remove can impact safety and the survival of remaining trees, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

DNR forestry outreach specialist Jennifer Teegarden offers the following tips.

Do:

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Approach damaged trees with caution. Stay clear of downed wires and call 911.

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Carefully inspect standing trees for damage and deal with hazardous trees first. If possible, ask a forester or arborist for advice.

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Trees should be removed if more than 50 percent of the trunk or live branches in the crown are damaged, and if the tree is unnaturally leaning or roots are damaged.

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Watch for detached branches, loosely hanging branches and split or cracked trunks that can cause injury or further damage.

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Use proper pruning techniques to remove broken limbs by cutting just outside the branch collar, but limit pruning to making the tree safe. Too much pruning can weaken an already stressed tree.

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Water stressed and damaged trees weekly to help them repair and rebuild. Be careful not to overwater, especially in heavy clay soils.

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Monitor damaged trees in upcoming years to make sure they don't become a hazard.

Don't:

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Be rushed by promises of bargains from inexperienced or unqualified tree service providers. Improper pruning or unneeded removal can result in unnecessary costs or loss of healthy trees. Ask for references and proof of insurance.

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Repair a broken branch or fork of a tree with tape, wire, bolts or other wraps. It will not heal, and the split will invite decay and further weaken the tree. Cabling or bracing should only be performed by a certified arborist and inspected annually.

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Remove the tops of trees. This makes the tree more susceptible to insects and disease, and results in new branches that are weakly attached.

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Apply paint or dressing to wounds as these materials interfere with the natural wound sealing process.

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Remove small, leaning trees. Trees less than 15 feet tall may survive if they are gently pulled back into place. Press out air spaces in the loosened soil. The tree can then be staked for up to a year.

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Fertilize stressed or damaged trees.

Information on tree care, proper pruning techniques and handling damaged trees is available on the DNR website at www.mndnr.gov/treecare/maintenance/stormdamage-prevention.html.

For more extensive information on tree care, contact a DNR forester, city forester, certified arborist or county extension staff.

Take the right steps to correct damaged trees so they can continue to provide shade, clean air, beauty and increased property value for many years to come.

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(c)2016 The Pine Journal (Cloquet, Minn.)

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