Bad Bad storm in Warroad

[Scarface]

I was in Warroad tonight and helped out at work for a bit. Some semi trailers tipped over and roof damage and flooding in Building 7 at Marvin’s. Much worse at the Point I heard, anyone have first hand knowledge of how bad it was, TV said severe damage to the Trading Post and campers in the campground.

[fiskyknut]

Very bad at the point. Walleyejon is out there now, he had a tree on his camper in the campground. Trading post wiped out fully. Campers and boats that were sitting north of the pool near the observation towers are either gone or severely damaged. WJ's good buddy Mike, and my bud Goose both had campers sitting back there and they're both gone entirely.

Sounds like no one is hurt bad, no deaths or missing people reported so far. From what I gathered off of the scanner last nite it was spotted just N of Salol as it formed up more, moved in an ESE direction towards Warroad at near 40 MPH. Folks did'nt have much warning but it sounds like they got the area informed and out of there soon enough.

fiskyknut

[toddb]

Sad to hear, hope everyone is O.K.

later,

toddb

[srj]

Hey Fisky, glad you made it thru the storm. Were you at the camper that night? Read where the authorities got everyone out of the park. Guess I better head to Bostic to see if I had damage.

[fiskyknut]

Nope I came back to Roseau Friday afternoon. BTW, great getting out fishing with you again on Wednesday. Was out in the little kicker boat on Thursday, darn good along that pass near that rockpile we beat. Managed to pull another 31 incher, 2 in a week!

Curt has a couple of pics of it and I'll post them on Jon's 'bad & ugly' thread once I get them from him. Got a pic of ccmonsr and his 31 also.

Let this weather settle and try and get back on 'em Tues and Wed maybe.

fiskyknut

[icemiester71]

Thursday for me. Just a tad bit too windy today.

[iffwalleyes]

I heard about this I hope everyone is ok. Sounds like it blew together pretty quick.

[curt quesnell]

I talked to WalleyeJon this morning as he heading back into

Warroad for the clean up. The roads we blocked off and

the volunteers were doing a good job keeping the area pretty

clear of onlookers. I couldnt get in there to see for

myself but Jon said it was pretty terrible.

No serious injury or loss of life as a tornado rips through

a campground on Saturday night in August.....a miracle!

The loss of property is pretty bad, I hope everyone has good

insurance and everything gets back to normal soon.

[CaptainCody]

Good to hear everyone is ok. Here is a video of the tornado.

http://wcco.com/video/[email protected]

[garage_logician]

Quote:

---

Very bad at the point. Walleyejon is out there now, he had a tree on his camper in the campground. Trading post wiped out fully. Campers and boats that were sitting north of the pool near the observation towers are either gone or severely damaged. WJ's good buddy Mike, and my bud Goose both had campers sitting back there and they're both gone entirely.

Sounds like no one is hurt bad, no deaths or missing people reported so far. From what I gathered off of the scanner last nite it was spotted just N of Salol as it formed up more, moved in an ESE direction towards Warroad at near 40 MPH. Folks did'nt have much warning but it sounds like they got the area informed and out of there soon enough.

fiskyknut

---

They made a big deal on this evenings newscast about the 40 minutes of warning that the residents recieved allowing everyone to get to a safe location. Seems the meterologists might be attempting to take credit for the good fortune of those who managed to avoid injury.

They also mentioned that no one was hurt which is very fortunate!

[stubby1]

I just listened to the local Warroad radio station as of 7:30 am this morning and they are interviewing a city official and he said the point is closed until further notice.There is no way to launch boats out of there right know for awhile.The official said the boat docks will be ok but the DNR fishing dock is flipped over and busted up really bad.They are putting a diver in the river to help clean up the river. I would think that Springsteel and K K bay (Kokageasik bay)(sp?))are going to be the only place to lay in the boats for a few days or so.

If you are interested in seeing some pics go the the Grand Forks Herald Website.They have quite a few pics from readers that sent them pics and they reposted on their site.

I missed all the action here in Warroad since myself and two others were up at Pipestone Lake fishing for some lake trout.It was a bit windy but we came back with one really nice laker and one small laker.It was a really nice lake to go see and try fish,I really got a kick out of the portage that we had to do. Way cool!!

I am really glad there was no injuries or worse, fatalities from this tornado. I hope that everyone pulls thru this in good spirits.

[walleyejon]

Well, here's the deal. About 75 boats (including mine) are either damaged beyond repair or completely missing. The north end of the campground was where the tornado touched down, and from talking to folks, there were 30+ campers damaged or destroyed. Mine isn't too bad, just a dent in the roof from what I can tell, hopefully it won't leak. Although it is true no one was hurt or killed, not everyone actually left the campground. Several people, including my neighbor hid out in the shower houses. The concrete changing house by the swimming pool did not have people in it, and is almost completely leveled. Talk about fate being on your side. One of the two fish cleaning houses, which were six feet apart, is gone, while the other one doesn't appear to be hurt at all---weird. The big T-dock, fishing pier is standing on end, the picinic shelters, mini golf course,the play ground, and the Trading Post Gift Shop are gone. I also heard that there is some pretty severe hail damage up at Springsteel, but I didn't go up there.

I have to thank all the city workers, law enforcement & fire department personel, Red Cross and citizen volunteers who have been flawless in their pre and post storm support. But most of all, I want to thank God for sparing everyones' lives. My buddy Mike, who Fisky mentioned, had a camper right up on the Point were the twister went through. This was the first weekend since early June he, his wife, and two young children were not up there. All we found of his camper was the floor attached to to a twisted steel frame. Words can't describe the emotional roller coaster all of us up there went through as we saw the extent of the damage, and made sure everyone was accounted for. We can replace our campers and boats, but a life you can't get back.

I'll see you on the water soon, WJ

[marine_man]

Best of luck to you and your family Walleyjon in the recovery!

marine_man

[walleyejon]

How's this for luck. I just found out my boat is fine. A family member was up that way, and got it out of there for me before the storm hit. No wonder I couldn't find any pieces of it.

[1DIRTBALL]

Given the choice, I would rather be lucky than good anytime. Jon I'm so glad you and yours are OK. I was going to grab my chainsaw and come up and help you when I heard they weren't letting anyone in there. Do you happen to know if any volunteers are still needed? You are oh so right! Things can be replaced. Lives can't! I live 7 miles south of Warroad on the Old Buffalo road and I didn't even get a drop of rain when the tornado went through. Go figure. While I may occasionally give you a small amount of flak here in the forums, what happens to you and yours matters to me. If you weren't here, who would I pick on? Oh yeah! There's always Merc Man! 1DIRTBALL

[iffwalleyes]

Jon I too am very glad to hear that you has some luck on your side. The pictures on the Herald's website are amazing. I can not even began to imagen what it must be like up there. But as mentioned it is very luckey that no one was hurt. It takes storms and things like this for one to remember what is really important in life.

[walleyejon]

Thanks Keith. I wouldn't like you near as much if you didn't give me crap. This morning on the way to work, they were asking anyone who wanted to volunteer to go to the city building south of the Dairy Queen. There certainly is plenty to clean up. There is a pretty good article and a bunch of pictures here if any of you wanna check it out:

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/15215082.htm

[yellowsubmarine]

I've been away from the computer for a while, just heard about this. Glad to hear everyone is OK.

[nitefisher]

fiskyknut, tell lonnie aka (goose) to give mike in starbuck mn a call. he is related to my wife. he tells me that your a good fishing buddy and to look you up on one of the sights that im always on, well i guess i did'nt have to look to hard. glad to meet you fiskyknut.

[newfoldener]

Well where to start. I was in the front row of the campground when the tornado situation started. Our group has 3 campers in a row. We were the 3rd ,4th and 5th campers from the resturant. About a 1/2 hour before it hit the police were coming around and letting everyone know about the storm with their bullhorns. We were cooking hamburgers and corn on the cob. One of the guys was saying that he figured that we were just one small speck and the tornado isn't going to hit us. At that time the police came back around and told everyone to evacuate, so we turned off the grill and the corn on the cob(turkey fryer), and closed up the campers. We left in two trucks and left a car behind and headed to the sports arena. When we got to the arena we were one of the last people to head inside. Walking across the parking we could see the tornado start to spin and the wind pick up. After 10 or 15 minutes we came out to return to the campground. We went around to the road that runs along the lake and seen all the downed trees and then the campers. As we came by the pool we noticed my uncles boat trailor in the pool. Then we arived at what was home for the weekend. Two of the campers were on there sides and had hit the third camper and one of our boats was upside down lying against the car that we left. The only thing left untouched was the corn in the turkey fryer, it stood in the same spot still full of hot water. Our aftermath- lost 3 campers, 1 boat, 1 car, 1 grill full of hamburger - saved 6 fishermen

[1DIRTBALL]

I was down at the campground yesterday, along with a number of other volunteers, to help in the clean-up of that terrible mess. May go down again today unless Fiskynut calls me to go fishing. This clean-up is going to take a while. Anybody that wants to volunteer can go to the new Warroad city office just south of the Dairy Queen. You sign up there and they bus you over to the area you will be working in. It's very sad to see how much has been destroyed. Campers and boat trailers, wrecked and twisted. Beautiful, big trees that took years to grow, smashed, twisted and gone. When I first arrived and started working, a guy came up to me and asked if I would mind him asking me a few questions. He turned out to be a reporter for the Fargo Forum. The first question he asked me was how I heard about volunteering for the clean-up program. (Yes Rick, I did tell him I heard about it on FM from my buddy, walleyejon) As I mentioned earlier, any FM member that would like to volunteer can just go to the new Warroad City offices just south of the Dairy Queen and sign up. I know it's appreciated because any number of city employees came by and thanked me profusely while I was working. You know something? It really does make you feel good to volunteer for a clean-up program like this! I still feel bad for all the poor people who suffered loss's and damage to camper's, boats, etc. Even walleyejon! Or should I be saying Poutjon? 1DIRTBALL

[nitefisher]

things can be replaced lives can't, glad to hear that you all are o.k. i have gone through this myself before, and it will work out in the end even when you don't think so. wish i could come help clean things up but am to busy in the feilds bailing. im just glad that know one was killed.

[nitefisher]

you see that fiskyknut tell him to get on here so i can talk with him. my wife would like to know how goose and the kids are.(relation to us)

[nofishfisherman]

I went and helped out clean up the damage left by the 2 tornados in the past the one that hit Siren WI. a few years back and a smaller one that did some scattered damage south of the Twin Cities. It is amazing what one storm can do in a matter of minutes and its even more amazing how much work a group of 20 volunteers can get done in a day.

Make sure you don't think you can be of any help there is more to do in these kinds of areas then you know. Even if you can't do the physical labor of cutting up downed trees or pulling pontoons out of oak trees there is always other stuff that needs to be done and they will get you to a place where you can help I am sure.

Just a few people can make a huge difference so if you can give them a day of your time I would strongly suggest you do.

[bturck]

Sorry to read about the devastation all of you went through up there. Very happy as many have stated that no lives were lost. Our company sent an adjuster up on Tuesday morning to work the claims reported so hopefully replacment of lost items can take place quickly. Our thoughts are with all of you and hope life returns to somewhat normal very quickly. Bill