Severe Weather Rips Through Lake Minnetonka Art Festival
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A day on the lake makes for a peaceful Sunday. But today it's only the calm after the storm.
"It was a mess. We had a lot of hail coming down, the tents were getting destroyed. The wind was probably the worst part with the rains, the sheets of rain coming in," Josh Minnihan from Cambridge said.
Some artists like Mark Herman lost everything at the 37th annual Excelsior art fair along Lake Minnetonka.
Straight line winds ripped apart tents.
People in town volunteered to try to help save paintings and pottery.
"You see this and you just have to help so I'm here," one volunteer said.
"We did have wicked straight line winds come through here about three years ago and that taught us a lot," Laura Hotvet of the Lake Minnetonka Chamber of Commerce said.
Vendors were evacuated before it came through.
But the storm hit the west and north metro hard.
A lightning strike caused a home in Mounds View to catch fire.
There were massive trees down all over.
Some homeowners in Blaine had time to tie down their trampoline, only to have it crushed by a fallen tree.
"We heard a crack and it just blew over and we have a hole in our shed window and lots of cleanup," Patty Sorenson said.
One woman risked the threat of a falling tree to use it as shelter to protect her cars from hail.
"It was hailing so bad I couldn't see the end of the driveway standing by the doorway," she said.
The show did go on for the art fair for those who could.
A reminder that summer in Minnesota is unpredictable.
"You do have to prepare for the what ifs," Hotvet said.
