Suspected tornado devastates Clamshell Beach Resort area near Pequot Lakes, Minn. – West Central Tribune

PEQUOT LAKES — A team from the National Weather Service in Duluth is still surveying damage in the lakes area on June 12, 2024, but video evidence suggests the likelihood of a tornado east of Jenkins and Pequot Lakes.

“(A survey team) is going to go there this afternoon to look at the damage to officially confirm it was a tornado,” Patrick Ayd, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Duluth, said Thursday. . “If they confirm it was a tornado, we'll give them a rating. Based on last night's reports and some video, it appears there was a tornado. They'll just go there to confirm that based on the damage and based on the damage on the damage, they will give a rating.

Possible funnel cloud formations were photographed by residents in the Jenkins area just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, when community Facebook pages began reporting possible tornado touchdowns at Clamshell Beach Resort and the along County Road 16 in Ideal Township heading east.

Although suspicious, low, funnel-shaped clouds were photographed in the area of ​​the AmericInn in Jenkins, workers and visitors to the business were spared the severe weather conditions.

“Everything was fine,” said general manager Rebecca Mesenbrink. “We were lucky, I guess.”

Mesenbrink said they would have been well prepared if the weather had turned bad because the entire facility is a sturdy concrete structure with the exception of the billiard room. All guests would have been directed, according to procedures, inside, to the first floor.

However, we never got there. The front gardens didn't even suffer the hail damage reported by much of the area.

However, not far from County Road 16 at Clamshell Beach Resort, employees witnessed the devastating effects of the likely tornado.

“Gwen and I were here in the lodge and our phones started going off with alerts,” said lodge manager Krista Fevold. “We immediately heard tornado sirens and thought we should head to a basement. We ran to Bertha, one of our units with a basement, and barely made it. tree fell moments after we passed it, and we got hit by hail on the way, but we were very lucky I can't even describe the sound as like a train. , but it wasn't like anything I've ever heard.”

Outside, winds toppled a pontoon and trees fell throughout the complex, damaging cabins, destroying signs, a sea wall and a vehicle in one of the parking lots.

“We believe a tornado passed through,” said Erica Meitz, operations and maintenance manager at Clamshell Beach Resort. “Our amazing team, Krista and Gwen, were there and had to take shelter. We were very fortunate that no one was injured. We believe we lost about 80% of our trees and several cabins were damaged, but overall we feel pretty blessed.”

“There's a lot of damage, but no one was hurt, so that's the most important thing,” Fevold said.

Staff and guests were asked to take shelter in safe areas, often in basements in designated cabins, once the sirens began to sound. However, the change in weather occurred almost without warning.

The resort has canceled reservations for a limited time to allow crews to clean up fallen trees and repair property damage.

“For this week, we are canceling reservations,” Meitz said. “We will meet again towards the end of the week, but for now we are focused on cleaning everything up so our guests can come back and enjoy it safely.”

Campgrounds and private property near Breezy Point suffered similar damage, according to witnesses. While many areas were spared the strongest winds, large hailstones and weaker winds ravaged more of the lake area.

“As far as hail goes, we've gotten a lot of reports coming from the Backus area and the Crosslake area and then east to Crosby,” Ayd said. “There have been numerous reports of golf ball hail slightly smaller than a tennis ball in size in the Backus area through Crosslake and then a little east of Crosby, as well as reports of wind damage to numerous boats and docks as well as trees along this path.

Ayd said the weather service will provide its updates on the classification of the possible tornado on social media and at Weather.gov/duluth.

Severe thunderstorms and possibly other severe weather may be on the horizon.

“It looks like we might return to an active storm regime,” Ayd said. “It looks like as we move toward the end of the weekend and into next week, particularly Saturday afternoon and evening, and then into the middle of next week, we're expecting several rounds of thunderstorms and to increasing humidity. It will be much more like summer there, there are also signs of possible thunderstorms.