Thursday night's thunderstorms, packed with 70 mph winds, knocked out power for about 3,000 Crow Wing Power customers and many Minnesota Power customers in the Brainerd lakes area.
And Friday's winds didn't help either, causing more intermittent power outages throughout the lakes area. No one was reported injured in Thursday's storms.
A power line fell on a parked car on the 8900 block of Little Pelican Drive in Pelican Township in front of a cabin late Thursday night, the Crow Wing County Sheriff's Department reported. While all parties were reported safe inside the cabin they were unable to get out of the cabin because of the downed power lines.
Another power line fell on a car near Sandy Beach Resort in Lake Shore around 1:30 a.m. Friday and started the car's tires on fire, said Nisswa Fire Chief Richard Geike. The fire department put the fire out and the power company was called.
Char Kinzer, Crow Wing Power public relations manager, said more power outages were expected to be reported throughout the weekend as cabin owners discover their power was out, too. She said by 11 p.m. Friday power was restored to all Crow Wing Power customers and the crews were sent home. They had been hoping power would be restored by midnight.
"Everybody was back on by 11 p.m. last night so we felt pretty good about that," Kinzer said Saturday. "Today we anticipate when people get to their cabins we'll have a few more throughout the weekend."
Kinzer said crews were out repairing lines just after a storm caused damage around 8 p.m. Thursday and were nearly done when a stronger storm came in around 11 p.m. At its peak, Crow Wing Power had about 3,000 customers without power and still had about 2,800 customers without power Friday morning.
Kinzer said the hardest hit areas during Thursday's storm were in the Breezy Point and Crosslake areas but there also was storm damage and intermittent outages in a diagonal line from Motley to Emily. High winds continued to topple trees, causing additional power outages on Friday.
"Progress is very slow," Kinzer said Friday. "There are so many areas with trees down and the weather is continuing to cause trees down."
Pat Mullen, Minnesota Power vice president for public affairs, said Friday a power pole was struck by lightning in Nisswa Thursday night. A large tree fell on a power line in the Deerwood area Friday afternoon, causing about 500 Minnesota Power customers to lose power. There also was a bad underground cable that caused outages Friday for at least six Minnesota Power customers in the Nisswa area, said Mullen.
Kinzer said Crow Wing Power called in four to six extra crews from other cooperatives and contractors to help out. She said as of 5 p.m. Friday, Crow Wing Power still had 789 customers without power.
Kinzer reminded residents to stay away from downed power lines and to report dangerous situations.
JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
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