Storm cuts through Bemidji, leaves thousands without power in northern Minnesota

A large swath of northern Minnesota was without power Saturday morning after a destructive storm ripped through the area with heavy winds, hail and intense lightning, toppling trees and street signs.

Tornadoes were reported Friday night that formed in western North Dakota and moved east, killing three people in Enderlin, N.D., just an hour west of the Fargo-Moorhead area, which experienced flash flooding, officials said.

Cass County Sheriff Jesse Jahner said at a news conference Saturday that two men and a woman were killed at two separate locations in Enderlin late Friday.

As the severe storm with winds over 100 miles per hour pushed east, it hit the surrounding Detroit Lakes area before causing significant damage in Bemidji, which was reporting widespread power outages.

Most businesses in Bemidji were closed Saturday morning. Transmitters were down and street lights weren’t working, so intersections were four-way stops. Many street signs and traffic lights were toppled.

With traffic lights down, intersections in Bemidji were increasingly dangerous, with several reported crashes by midmorning. One bicyclist was hit by a truck around 10 a.m. at 5th Street and Bemidji Avenue. Emergency responders provided aid at a chaotic scene trying to direct traffic and get the victim into an ambulance.

Nearby, Heroes Rise Coffee Co. food truck had a long line of customers as most establishments were closed. Jeff VanGrinsven, co-owner of the first responder-owned and -operated coffee roasting company, came to check on the food truck this morning after the storm and decided to open. He said that Heroes Rise had served around 200 customers that morning and that he had never seen the line so long.

With no electricity and a heat index of nearly 90 degrees Saturday, folks will be without air conditioning.

“I might have to go to Grand Rapids to go put fish in my friend’s freezer. The other stuff is replaceable,” said Joe Banta, of Bemidji, who is without power. “I went fishing all day yesterday, 13 hours out on the lake.”

The old Dairy Queen lost its signs and workers said they were selling Dilly Bars and Ice Cream cakes before they went bad.

Due to the weather making trails impassible, Bemidji canceled its annual Loop the Lake Festival, which involves crowds of people biking around Lake Bemidji.

The Northwest Technical College building for plumbing and HVAC systems, as well as the Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies, were severely damaged. All the windows broke, exposing rows of computers and equipment to rain.

Jim Hoffman, the owner of the building who leases it to the school, said fortunately school is out for the summer. But he said “this town’s really a mess.”

“It’s going to take a long time to clean it up,” he said as he helped board up the windows.

At Greenwood Cemetery, dozens of snapped and uprooted trees lay in the grass, pointed west. Several headstones fell in the storm.

On Saturday morning, Monaya Magaurn, 40, headed to the cemetery with an electric Stihl chainsaw to clear the graves of her grandparents and father. “I cleaned up my business this morning, so I decided to come down here to try and clean up a little bit,” she said.

“It was a long night,” Timothy Lynch, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, said Saturday morning. Lynch said survey damage crews were in North Dakota for now, but may head to Bemidji to see if there are confirmed tornado touchdowns.

He said that there were rotations in that area but that mostly it experienced straight line winds causing “substantial damage.” With gusts up to 112 mph, he said, that is suspect for potential tornadoes.

The atmosphere is essentially catching its breath Saturday to unleash again on Sunday, when there is a higher likelihood of seeing more severe weather, he said. There’s “not a lot of widespread potential” for Saturday, he said, but with a cold front coming through Sunday, that creates a higher risk for isolated tornadoes.

“Hail and wind are the primary threat, but a tornado cannot be ruled out. Stay up to date as the forecast verifies,” the National Weather Service said in a tweet Saturday morning.

This story contains material from the Associated Press.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.