On Sunday, July 12th, Central Minnesota was hit with a massive thunderstorm. This storm started near the North Dakota border, where it spun several tornadoes, before it tore through central Minnesota with hurricane force winds. The wind just north of Brainerd hit over 100mph, which is the same as a Category 2 Hurricane.
The storm knocked out power for more than 20,000 people, and did affect Stern Rubber on Sunday night, as the third shift did not operate, due to the lack of power. The facility did get power back during the night, and 1st shift was able to operate. Many areas of Brainerd were without power for up to a week, making this the longest power outage in Minnesota due to a storm.
The company did have several employees that had storm damage that was mainly based on down trees, with many of them falling on houses and cars.
The storm caused such damage that many resorts and golf courses were forced to close for up to a couple of weeks during the height of vacation season. The hardest hit were Madden’s Resort and Craguns, while Kavanaugh’s, and Grand View Lodge also took drastic damage. Madden’s has several buildings destroyed. These are some of the largest and oldest resorts in Minnesota, and with the tree loss, will never look the same. There were also several other small resorts and campgrounds that were damaged.
The best news to come out of all of this was that neighbors pulled together to check on each other, and help each other. Unbelievably, there were no deaths, and not even any major injuries. The National Weather Service did a great job getting out an early warning,
Below are some links to some of the many stories that covered the storm and all of the damage.
https://www.brainerddispatch.com/news/weather/3799915-winds-hit-100-mph-storm-some-sections-wind-reached-category-2-hurricane-force
https://www.startribune.com/rollicking-night-of-damaging-storms-from-w-minn-to-twin-cities/314534791/
Near Category 1 Hurricane Causes Mayhem In Brainerd, Minnesota, USA
Here are aerial videos of some of the damage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfTTJilug8I