Fierce storm destroys vehicles, trees

Photo By Patrick Moes | Desiree Hesse, Gull Lake Recreation Area summer ranger, picks up debris following a July 12 storm that dropped nearly 1,000 trees. The park, on the southeast side of Gull Lake and near Brainerd, Minn., had campers at 26 campsites when the storm arrived around 7 p.m. Despite damage to a few vehicles and buildings, there were no injuries to any of the staff or campers.  

BRAINERD, MN, UNITED STATES

07.21.2015

Story by Patrick Moes 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District

BRAINERD, Minn. – A Sunday evening storm caused severe damage to the Gull Lake Recreation Area July 12.

Downing around 800 – 1,000 trees at the park, campers at the 26 campsites were fortunate that nothing severe happened to them, said Robert Burns, a student ranger and junior at the University of Minnesota, Crookston.

Burns said he had been watching the radar on his phone, because he knew all of the ingredients for a strong storm were present that afternoon. Initially, he said, it looked like the storm was going to go north of the park. Then, shortly before 7 p.m., Burns said everything became calm. The sirens began going off, and he went from campsite to campsite to let people know that there was potential for storms in the area and reminded everyone of the location for the shelters.

“If things get bumpy,” he said, “the storm shelter is the comfort station.”

Burns said the campers were appreciative of the information, and he repeatedly heard “thanks for keeping us posted” from them. As the storm approached, he said he looked to the west and saw that the storm was getting closer.

“It had a pretty good tail echo to it, so I knew it could get bad,” said the Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, native.

Then the winds arrived.

Burns said, “The campsite went from calm to trees snapping.”

He said he saw a tree come down near one of the campsites. It landed within a few feet of a tent that a man was still inside of. Burns said he grabbed the man and took him to the shelter where they rode out the storm. It lasted for another 45 minutes before finally leaving the area.

Understandably shaken, Burns said the campers were “all looking to me to see what to do.”

After a few phone calls to his supervisors, he said he and Corrine Hodapp, Gull and Cross Lake Recreation supervisory park manager, went from site to site later in the evening to reassure all of the campers that everyone was going to be OK. Staff from Gull and Cross arrived the following morning and began the process of clearing a path for all of the campers. It would take until 4 p.m. before the last camper had a path to leave the camp.

While a few trees landed on some of the vehicles and buildings, Burns said he was amazed that nobody was injured. Mary Kay Larson, Gull Lake park manager, echoed that statement. She said Burns did an amazing job getting all of the campers to safety.

“I’ve been through a lot of storms at the campsite,” she said, “but I’ve never had anything like this happen."

“We only lost a couple of trees in the 27 years that I’ve been here,” she added, “and to lose half of our trees, it’s just unreal.”

• Date Taken: 07.21.2015
• Date Posted: 07.22.2015 15:40
• Story ID: 170775
• Location: BRAINERD, MN, US
• Hometown: INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, MN, US