2023 Vol 17, Issue 5 September Gem Lake News

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Gem Lake News Page 5 of 8 Storms Hammer Gem Lake - Twice Massive summer thunderstorms on July 19 and July 24 knocked out power in Gem Lake and resulted in significant storm damage. On both occasions, many Gem Lake residents lost power for hours. The two storms dropped trees on Goose Lake Road, Otter Lake Road and Highway 96. Each of these events resulted in traffic challenges and significant clean up. Tree and branch damage was evident throughout the city. Over 30 trees were lost to the two events, with 9 of these happening on the Gem Lake Hills Golf Course. The grounds crew at the course worked late into the evening on July 19 to clean up as much damage as possible, due to a junior league event that was scheduled for the following day. Although there were early reports that a tree fell on Heritage Hall, this was later shown to be not quite true. A large tree fell parallel to the structure and completely missed doing anything but backyard damage. Both White Bear Township and Gem Lake municipal buildings lost power and had to close temporarily. For the next two weeks, the sound of chain saws in action filled the summer air. Some folks are still cleaning up the storm damage. Here is what Gem Lake Council Member Jim Linder had to say: Up until July 19, the summer of 2023 had been mostly free of violent weather in Gem Lake. That was until approximately 5:30PM on Wednesday, July 19 when strong winds and heavy rain blew through town. Winds in excess of 30mph were accompanied by about a half inch of rain all within a span of about 30 minutes. Branches and trees fell, and power was out for roughly 4 hours in the eastern part of town. Later that same evening, while waiting for power to be restored, residents began the cleanup. People surveyed the damage, picked up smaller branches from their yards, returned lawn and patio furniture to their proper places and used chainsaws for the larger branches and trees. Some resident joked it sounded like they were in an episode of the old Red Green Show, where a cacophony of chainsaws frequently provided background noise for many episodes. Other areas of neighboring White Bear Lake were hit even harder as several large trees fell across streets creating cleanup headaches for public works staff. But things slowly returned to normal over the following days. County Road F and parts of downtown were hit particularly hard. But mother nature was not done yet. Sometime after 2:00PM on Monday, July 24, round two happened, hitting nearly the same area as the previous storm. More trees were toppled and branches that did not fall during earlier event were subjected to new wind gusts. This time nearly 1.5 inches of rain fell in eastern Gem Lake and power was out for over four hours. Two tall trees along Otter Lake Road in White Bear Township fell across power lines forcing Xcel Energy crews to close the road to all traffic, automobiles as well as walkers, until the lines could be returned to service. Residents who’ve lived in Gem Lake for over 35 years were hard pressed to recall two powerful storms just five days apart. Hopefully the odds are now in Gem Lake’s favor and the next storm will strike somewhere else, but never underestimate nature and summertime in Minnesota.