Fillmore and Houston counties are under a flash flood warning following heavy rainfall with more to come

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Crow Wing County didn't have a good summer.

 that dropped baseball-sized chunks of ice on the Nisswa area. A few weeks later a major storm swept through north central Minnesota with torrential rains. Soon after, more rain. 


Then on Aug. 4, 80 mph winds ripped through the area, uprooting trees and knocking out power to thousands.  
 

tipped over a three-ton Babe the Blue Ox statue

 
This week inspectors with the state's Homeland Security and Emergency Management office toured the damage. Their estimates will determine how much money Crow Wing County will get to offset the costs of repairing roads and downed power lines.

 
"Crow Wing County wasn't hit harder than the rest of the state," said Minnesota Homeland Security Deputy Director Kevin Reed. "But it was hit more often."


 
A string of powerful storms swept through Minnesota this year. Floodwaters rose across the central and southern parts of the state. 

 by falling trees in the Boundary Waters and thousands of homes in Duluth lost power for days.

 
Gov. Mark Dayton has already approved nearly $6.5 million for disaster relief across the state. Some of that went to Crow Wing County for a storm that happened on July 11. The county estimates two more storms in July and August did an extra $700,000 in damage to public infrastructure.

 
Hardest hit in Crow Wing County was the Grand View Lodge on the northern shore of Gull Lake.

 
Lodge manager Mark Ronnei said it wasn't so much the severity of the storms, but the cumulative effect. Hail demolished the roofs of 70 structures on the lodge grounds. Then two back-to-back heavy rain events saturated the ground, making tree roots unstable right before 80 mph winds swept through.

 
"No pun intended," he said, "but it was the perfect storm."


 
Grand View lost more than 300 trees, many of them more than a century old. In total, Ronnei said his insurance claims will reach $2 million, four times more than the county hopes to get for its downed power lines.
 


Kevin Reed from the Homeland Security office says disaster relief figures will be finalized next month.

Disasters

Weather and Climate News

Shows

Morning Edition

John Enger

Author

The tourist season opened with a hail storm that dropped baseball-sized chunks of ice. Soon after, more rain. Then, high winds ripped through the area.

The tourist season opened with a hail storm that dropped baseball-sized chunks of ice. A few weeks later a major storm swept through with torrential rains. Soon after, more rain. Then on August 4, 80 mph winds ripped through the area.

Three back-to-back summer storms up disaster aid request in Crow Wing

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox