MPR’s Lorna Benson talks with Mark Van Every, spokesperson for the Superior National Forest Service in Duluth, about the BWCA storms. Van Every says it was the worst storm his office has seen the the past decade.
The Boundary Waters was one of the hardest hit areas by weekend's violent storms. Heavy rains and strong straight line winds made many portages impassable and downed trees at campsites. The forest service is working to evacuate injured campers. They are also clearing roads and portages so groups won't become trapped in the area.
The Boundary Waters–Canadian Derecho (also called the Boundary Waters Blowdown), produced straight-line winds of up to 100 mph, which uprooted and toppled nearly 500,000 acres of the BWCA's trees in a massive blowdown. It began in Fargo mid-morning on July 4, 1999, and plowed at a northeasterly angle across the state. It mowed across northeastern Minnesota, crossed into Canada, and fizzled out in Maine the following morning, traveling 1,300 miles and lasting 22 hours.
Transcripts
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SPEAKER 1: We continue to have a series of thunderstorms rolling through the area. But yesterday we had a very strong straight line winds that damaged trees and a swath approximately three to five miles wide by about 30 miles long.
Cutting a path across the Boundary Waters beginning at Moose Lake near Ely, continuing on in a northeasterly direction over towards Seagull Lake off the Gunflint Trail. In addition to that, we also had a number of other areas that were impacted. And we're still assessing the full extent of the wind damage.
SPEAKER 2: How much wind damage do you think that there might be?
SPEAKER 1: Well, as you know, it's a huge area. The Boundary Waters is about a million acres. And our focus up to this point has all been on search and rescue. There's 14 individuals that have been medevacked out of the wilderness due to injuries from falling trees. And so it's going to take us a while to assess exactly how much damage there was to campsites and portages.
SPEAKER 2: Are we talking serious injuries here?
SPEAKER 1: Well, it's certainly serious to the folks that were involved. At this point, there have been no fatalities and we certainly hope there won't be any. There were some internal injuries and a number of broken bones.
SPEAKER 2: Do you think there may still be people out there in trouble that have not been able to get a hold of anyone for help?
SPEAKER 1: It's possible. And that's why we've tried to focus on search and rescue efforts. We have our folks out there doing a lake by lake and campsite by campsite check to make sure that folks are OK.
We also have aircraft up in the air to the extent we're able to with the weather flying over lakes and kind of trying to get a sense of if people are OK on campsites. And if we detect problems, we'll land and check that out.
SPEAKER 2: So for people who are trying to come home, say today, how difficult is it for them to get out?
SPEAKER 1: A lot's going to depend on the conditions where they're at. Some folks may be stuck behind a portage that's really impassable due to the number of trees that have fallen across it. Other folks may have no problem at all getting out.
SPEAKER 2: How long do you think it will take to clean up the portages and the campsites?
SPEAKER 1: That'll depend on what we find in terms of the total damage out there. And we don't really have a good handle on that yet.
SPEAKER 2: But you've seen it from the air. It could be a while.
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, it's definitely going to take some time. Seeing it from the air and actually seeing it on the ground, particularly in terms of the portages, you can't get a real good picture of how much damage there actually is.
SPEAKER 2: For people who have a camping trip coming up in the next week or so, you definitely would advise them to call ahead of time to make sure that they'll be able to get there?
SPEAKER 1: That's correct. Yeah. And we'll be able to give them some sense of what the situation is for that entry point. If they are unable to go, we are going to be providing refunds to those folks and hopefully try to accommodate them either on a different entry point or at another time.