Walz declares peacetime emergency, directs more resources to Bemidji area

Gov. Tim Walz declared a peacetime emergency Friday and directed state agencies to provide additional assistance to Beltrami County a week after a destructive derecho caused widespread damage in the Bemidji area.

Beltrami County requested state resources to respond to the damage. Walz had toured the area Tuesday and said that he’s concerned about homeowner insurance falling short.

The order allows for continued support to emergency responders and affected communities.

Also Friday, area utility companies said power is fully restored to the 27,000 people who had lost it during the storm.

On Friday, Beltrami Electric said the lights were back on for more than 19,000 customers — over 90% of the co-op’s rural distribution system.

Early last Saturday morning winds up to 120 mph swept across the region and officials declared a state of emergency. The widespread outage also impacted 8,000 Otter Tail Power Company customers, but the company said Friday that all power had been restored when just the night before 240 customers were still without power.

“Our crews have been giving it their all to completely restore power across our service area,” wrote Otter Tail spokesperson Stephani Hoff. “When we have electrical outages of this scale, we must begin where we’ll make the greatest restoration impact and work our way as safely and quickly as possible to every individual home.”

Hundreds of linemen descended into Bemidji last Saturday for “one of the most challenging and grueling restoration efforts in recent memory,” wrote Beltrami Electric spokesperson Angela Lyseng.

Five neighboring cooperatives joined Beltrami’s line crew, who Lyseng referred to as Storm Soldiers, and are now able to return home to “begin cleaning up the damage left behind at their own homes.”

The recent storm toppled thousands of trees and street lights. An estimated 80 broken poles, along with damage to transformers and other essential equipment will require “weeks of follow-up repair work to fully address the lasting impact,” Lyseng said.

People are keeping an eye on the potential for more severe thunderstorms and high winds this weekend.

“Trees and root systems weakened by last weekend’s storm remain a concern, as those near power line corridors may fall or cause additional damage if disturbed by new weather events,” she said.