The word “crazy” was used a few times as people and weather experts described the storm system that blew through Wednesday night, July 8, in the Brainerd lakes area.

The system offered plenty of lightning and two tornado touchdowns in the area of South Long Lake and Pine Center and another west of Garrison. Before arriving in the lakes area, the storm produced two tornadoes in Otter Tail County, creating a 6-9 mile path of damage in the southeastern part of the county and leaving a 30-year-old man dead. Seth Nelson of rural Battle Lake died when the shop he was working in collapsed during the tornado, which was categorized as an EF-3, meaning it had wind speeds between 136 and 165 mph.

The National Weather Service in Duluth confirmed Thursday the two additional tornado touchdowns in Crow Wing County. Crow Wing County Emergency Management Director John Bowen said the tornado near Pine Center in the area of County Highway 22 and County Road 108 partially took off the roof of a home with an attached garage.

“The National Weather Service is supposed to be coming out today to do assessments on the damage, but for the most part, we've had minimal, minimal damage,” Bowen said. “There's some damage up in the Crosslake area from the storm early this morning, trees were down, but none were on houses.”

Bowen said some boats tipped over on Big Trout Lake near Manhattan Beach and trees fell across roads. County workers were able to clear all the trees on county roads and highways. Bowen said it was a little crazy with how the showers and thunderstorms came in, and he was thankful the Crow Wing County tornadoes didn’t claim any lives or cause much damage.

Patrick Ayd, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Duluth, said it wasn’t just one but several rounds of storms that dumped 2-4 inches of rain across the Brainerd lakes area, along with hail, mostly about the size of a quarter or smaller. One round came before sunset Wednesday night, he said, while the other came much later into the night. The later storm, he said, brought 58 mph wind gusts to Brainerd.

But as was evidenced by the tornado touchdowns, Ayd said the areas north and west of Garrison were the hardest hit in the lakes area. Save for the damaged roof and some downed trees, though, he said there didn’t seem to be a lot of damage.

“We need something to get the air to lift, and we need the winds to be turning just right to get the storms to have good longevity and be able to produce severe weather,” Ayd said. “... Certainly we need a lot of warmth and humidity — those are the two main ingredients, especially as we move into the heart of summer here, for thunderstorms.”

In the midst of the storm, the Deerwood Fire Department was called to two separate fires in the span of about 10 minutes. Firefighters responded to a home struck by lightning at 7:50 p.m. in Bay Lake Township. Shortly after 8 p.m., another call came in of a detached garage on fire in Irondale Township, to which Crosby Fire Department provided mutual aid.

A Deerwood fire official said while the Bay Lake home did not sustain much structural damage, electrical damage was widespread. The garage fire could not be definitively attributed to a lightning strike and was referred to the Minnesota State Fire Marshal’s Office for investigation.

A power transformer in northeast Brainerd burst into flames following a lightning strike as well. The fire was between Fourth and Fifth avenues on L Street Northeast, and Brainerd firefighters responded along with Brainerd Public Utilities.

The county sounded the sirens a few times Wednesday night to warn residents of severe weather approaching. Bowen said the county follows the statewide best practices plan, which is to sound the sirens for severe thunderstorms when weather experts are predicting 70 mph winds or more. And with last night’s storm, Bowen said the storm slowed down and then sped back up — prompting the National Weather Service to issue warnings each time and sparking the county to blow the sirens again.

Tornado near South Long Lake

Nicole Stephens, who lives west of Pine Center, was able to capture a short video of when the tornado came through the area.

“I went outside to watch the clouds because I really enjoy storms,” Stephens said. “I live on a dirt road and I was looking toward Brainerd and I saw it come across the road. I went inside and grabbed my phone, came back out and it was still on the ground, and I recorded it probably for about a minute and then it ended up dissipating.”

Stephens said when the tornado touched down, it was in a cornfield. This is not the first time Stephens has seen a tornado, as she used to live in Texas.

“But this is the closest one I’ve ever seen,” she said. “Honestly this tornado wasn’t that strong, because it wasn’t picking up much debris, but it was decent sized.”

Stephens said no rain fell by her place, although the weather service said the storms brought up to 4 inches of rain in the lakes area.

Storm chaser Michael Solie said he knew he was headed to the Brainerd area when he woke up Wednesday morning and checked the National Weather Service’s daily severe weather outlook. The 21-year-old, who is part of a five-person storm chasing team started by his brother called Twisted Expectations, drove from his home in Prior Lake in anticipation of spotting a tornado. He was successful in that mission, capturing video footage of the tornado in the South Long Lake area as it unfolded from beginning to end.

“I usually play it based off how the storms look on the radar,” Solie said during a phone interview Thursday. “I was lucky enough to just get out of my car and turn around and I saw the wall cloud. As soon as I got in view of it, it produced that tornado there.”

Solie and a friend watched the twister at the intersection of Thompson Road and County Highway 23, estimating it was on the ground for about 10 minutes.

“It would drop down and then it would lift,” he said. “After dropping two or three times, it finally proceeded to stay down for about eight minutes.”

He said he drove closer to try for a better view, but by that time the tornado was gone. He did find a tree down across County Highway 22 he suspected was due to the high winds of the tornado.

“There were cells that were coming from the west that choked the storm out,” Solie said. “It was in outflow mode, so all of the air that’s supposed to be going into the storm was going out of the storm.”

Damage in Mille Lacs area

Traveling farther east to Castaways Bar, Restaurant & Campground in Malmo on Mille Lacs Lake showed more property damage from the storm. Several trees were toppled over on a recreation vehicle and boat. With all the rain, several RV sites were flooded.

Ashley Jones and her boyfriend Darryl Trettin of Wyoming, Minnesota, and Jones’ father Bob Jones of Champlin sat on their front deck Thursday as they watched the large standing puddle of water soak into the ground, a day after the storm. The corner of the deck was underwater Thursday afternoon.

“It went from calm to like 60 mph wind just like that,” Trettin said, noting Ashley Jones witnessed a nearby tree fall.

Ashley Jones said, “Yeah seeing that fall was pretty crazy. That was pretty intense. ... And then we came out this morning and this (puddle) was about 3 inches higher.”

Bob Jones said there was a lot of lightning, rain and thunder. The group said they knew the storm was coming, so they walked down to the beach at the campground to watch the clouds make their way through the area.

“There was a storm chaser there, too,” Ashley Jones said. “He saw the one near Garrison, too, and was telling us that it touched down over there. ... It’s pretty incredible.”

Ann Davies, a bartender at the resort, said the storm hit about 8 p.m.

“The big cloud rolled in and it was not raining before that,” Davies said. “It rolled in, straight winds and went straight across the parking lot and lasted about 15 minutes and then it was over. It was very quick.”

Davies said the power flickered a few times on and off, but always came back up, unlike other resorts around the lake that lost power.

Aitkin County Sheriff Dan Guida said most of the damage in the county was on the north side of Mille Lacs Lake and in Lakeside Township, which is near Malmo. Guida said the township had a lot of trees down and some vehicles “got squished.”

“The winds were really strong, that’s for sure,” Guida said. “We had some power down south of Tamarack. Power companies and highway crews were out working last night.

Emergency directors for Mille Lacs, Cass and Morrison counties said damage was minimal, with some trees down, but nothing noteworthy.

“We had some pea-sized hail in Motley, and had some trees down scattered around the county, but that’s about it,” Morrison County Emergency Manager Victoria Ingram said. “There were about 20 counties who were in the weather watch and (the Brainerd area) appeared to get the brunt of the storm.”

Forecast

Looking forward, Ayd said there is a daily chance for showers and thunderstorms the next few days but nothing quite as strong as the recent storm is expected.

Temperatures are expected to reach the high 70s and low 80s, not quite as hot as the temperatures experienced in the lakes area the past couple weeks that were especially conducive to severe weather.

JENNIFER KRAUS may be reached at jennifer.kraus@brainerddispatch.com or 218-855-5851. Follow me at www.twitter.com/jennewsgirl on Twitter.

THERESA BOURKE may be reached at theresa.bourke@brainerddispatch.com or 218-855-5860. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DispatchTheresa .

CHELSEY PERKINS may be reached at 218-855-5874 or chelsey.perkins@brainerddispatch.com . Follow on Twitter at twitter.com/DispatchChelsey .