Jens Stordahl was one of the many people who volunteered to help with the storm clean-up in McIntosh after a storm with strong winds blew through town around 4:30 am last Friday, June 29th. Jens is the son of Bryce and Andrea Stordahl, owners of Minnesota Rust.

Fire broke out at the Brad and Joi Ingman home after a lightning strike due to the severe storm that passed through McIntosh on Friday, June 29th. The McIntosh Fire Department was quick to respond, despite the mess of downed trees that were all over the streets of town. Along with the McIntosh Fire Department, Erskine and Fosston Fire Departments also responded to the fire, along with the Essentia Health Fosston Paramedics and Polk County Sheriff's Department.

Electric power transmission lines from the Winger station to just south of Fosston were scattered and laying on the ground last Friday afternoon as high winds were a part of the dangerous storm that passed through East Polk County earlier that morning.

Giant trees, that have stood through decades were brought down by the high winds that last Friday's storm delivered to our communities.

Heavy storm damage in Winger after a strong storm passed through early Friday morning. Here, a large tree lay broken off near the base. Also, in the background is a Minnesota State Trooper who was serving as a road block due to the large electric transmission lines that lay across many roads near Winger after the strong winds crumpled and snapped off many of the towers that the lines were strung through.

Amidst the corn lay the twisted metal of a transmission line south of McIntosh on County Road 8.

Winds so powerful that it uprooted trees was quite evident throughout the town of McIntosh last Friday.

Narrow misses were seen after the storm, here a tree that broke off narrowly missed the truck.

Equipment was damaged here and there throughout our communities. Here, the grain auger at the McIntosh Elevator lay twisted against a building.

There were quite a few examples of trees on houses, most only delivered minimal damage, most were cleaned up quickly, but this tree lay, as the homeowner was busy working on restoring power to the residents of East Polk County.

The City of McIntosh had quite a large mess of trees and debris to pick up after the storm that hit the town on Friday, June 29th, but thanks to the help of many volunteers, some not even from around here, the town was cleaned up and looking good again quite quickly. Here, Shawn Hedlund helps Bob and Lorraine Lee with branches that fell into their yard and onto their house during the storm.

McIntosh and Winger Communities work together to clean up in wake of storm

Tue, 07/03/2018 - 9:15am admin

In the wake of the severe storm that blew through East Polk County early Friday morning, community members in both Winger and McIntosh were out and about helping their friends, family and neighbors clean up the trees and debris which lay throughout the towns and scattered about all over the rural areas.

Winger was preparing for their annual town celebration the following day, and with the help of residents and many of the businesses" volunteering their employee time the town was pretty close to ship-shape on Saturday and Winger Day and the Lion's Fish Fry was a huge success.

McIntosh had young and old alike out helping with the clean-up and lending a hand where it was needed.

The storm's main damage was to trees with many residents experiencing at minimum quite a few branches in their yards. There was damage to a few houses and businesses. Minnesota Rust and Rick's Repair lost a good part of the roof off their building. The Stordahl's owner's of Minnesota Rust were so grateful for the many volunteers who stopped by to help them as they moved their goods out of the damaged building to safer storage.

Much of East Polk County was without power for at least a few hours after the storm. Minnkota Power Company which has a station to the northwest of Winger lost approximately 75 transmission towers in an 11 miles span from Winger to Fosston. The impact of the loss of that line is only speculation, but it will be months before the repairs can be felt by the Company.

Power was rerouted from other areas and as of press time, there was nobody without power in East Polk County.

A lightening strike, in the town of McIntosh, during the storm started a fire at the Brad and Joi Ingman home, located just east of Our Savior's Church. The McIntosh Fire Department along with the assistance of the Erskine and Fosston Fire Departments were able to extinguish the fire but there was significant damage to their home.

Despite the damage to property, there was no severe injuries due to the strong and dangerous storm that was experienced early Friday, June 29th by the residents of East Polk County and that we can be grateful for.

McIntosh and Winger Communities work together to clean up in wake of storm

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