Iron Range communities come together to clean up following severe storm

GILBERT, MN. (Northern News Now) -- Massive cleanup efforts are underway in the Iron Range following Tuesday’s severe storms.

The storm brought straight line winds hitting the East Range Tuesday afternoon with winds up to 75 mph, making a mess of several communities.

“We have trees down on our home, we five trees down,” said Donna Sadar, a woman whose cabin was damaged during the storm. “There’s one on our roof, one on our deck, in our backyard, on our garage.”

Sadar’s cabin once sat peacefully along Bass Lake in Gilbert, MN. Now, the yard is covered in vegetation, the roof is damaged, and her screen room is a complete loss.

“I’m sick because this is my Shangri La,” said Sadar.

Sadar and her neighbors, devastated by the loss of 100-year-old trees, came together Wednesday to start the clean up process.

“We’re just a small, little one-mile lake you know,” said Sadar. “There’s not much to us and there are people way worse than us.”

Just down the street from Sadar’s cabin, several homes had trees completely uprooted in their yards. One home had a tree removal company remove trees from its roof.

“I mean this yard alone; we’ve already taken out like five or six trees,” said Kyle Kuklok, a grapple saw operator. “I mean it’s a lot of roof damage, a lot of damage on the sides.”

But even with all the damage, those in the community say they are happy to see their neighbors safe.

“I feel blessed nobody was hurt and we still have a standing cabin,” said Sadar.

Crews have been working hard at restoring power as well. Several hundred residents are still without power.

At one point Tuesday night, nearly 4,000 homes and businesses up there were without electricity.

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