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Putting a little humor into chaos: A tornado story and its aftermath. [1]

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Date: 2022-07-01

Really, it was such a small tornado that I wouldn’t be surprised if you missed the story last May. I would have, except for two things: it managed to make the national news, and I recognized the area of destruction. I have a very good friend who lives there, with “there” being further clarified as one of the two houses in her town that took damage.

A third building, commercial in nature, lost part of its roof, which sailed to her house, landed on her roof, (as if she needed another one, right?) taking out part of it as well as some of her garage roof, and destroying the south wall of her home and much of the living room. Somewhere in that chaos a large tree branch pierced her roof as well. As soon as I recognized the neighborhood and even the tree which fell across the lane to her home, I called to see how she was doing and she confirmed the damage. The twister, confirmed as such by visual sightings, bounced up and hit another house a couple hundred feet away, then apparently lifted and did little or no damage until it nailed a historical home in the next town.

So why did something so little make the national news, other then it must have been a slow news day? I suppose you have to know the area and the rest of the peculiar damage it did.

If you look at the map of Minnesota, it has two matching bumps sticking out on the sides, one west, one east. I personally refer to them as … uh, pardon… Minnesota’s breasts. The east one is around 30 — 40 miles northeast of the state capitol. That area plus a little more is Chisago County, and yes, that’s spelled with an “s” and not to be confused with Chicago, no matter how much spellcheck argues with you. Trust me. The southern part of the county is known as the Chisago Lakes region, where a fairly tightly knit chain of lakes features prominently. US Highway 8 on its way to Wisconsin worms around and between those lakes and through the small communities which have grown up around them.

Mostly the area is rural, homes to people year round, though tourists are always welcomed. (Disclosure: I have no connection to any of the tourist industry in the area.) Among homes, schools and churches are all kinds of small stores. It’s small enough to be between Walmarts, say about 10 miles either side of its outskirts, but big enough to have a Dairy Queen, Arby’s, and McDonalds. There’s a vineyard and winery along its western side. The original Hazelden sits on the eastern edge along one of the lakes. A large modern library was built along the highway a bit over 10 years ago. A popular state park is between the area and the last town east, the river it fronts being the St. Croix, a National Scenic Riverway.

One farm along Highway 8 between towns used to hold dozens of bison along with a store/restaurant, but the bison were discontinued a few years back when younger generations of the family were no longer interested in managing them. As a reminder, however, a life size statue of a bull still sits along the highway, where in winter it collects snow which predictably gets dirty. When it melts and refreezes overnight, one can often see a yellow icicle hanging from the lowest protuberance under it belly, dripping slowly until it melts.

Besides all the fish, turtles, and muskrats in the lakes, the observant person driving through the area can often spot sandhill cranes, wild turkeys, herons or egrets, ducks and geese, and the occasional reminder of other animals lying along the highway. The notorious Minnesota Attack Deer regularly get the harshest reminders that attacking cars or trucks was not their wisest final act.

Part of the highway is called the Moberg Trail, and local historians will inform anybody of how the famous Swedish author traveled through and based a book on the emmigrants in the area. The towns are proud of their Swedish connections, and most have “sister cities” back in Sweden. Summer festivals include that history in their themes.

The towns also did one more thing which features in why this tiny twister made the news, and why I’m writing about it. Part of the area tourist attractions is a series of hugely oversized adirondack chairs, placed here and there in parks and along lakeshores. Why? No clue. Maybe they couldn’t do what other Minnesota towns do with huge statues of fish, bragging about their record catch possibilities, so somebody in power got AN IDEA. For a mental picture of the chairs, picture Lily Tomlin’s character Edith Ann in her huge chair. An agile person — or family — can climb up into them for a souvenir photo of the weird fun thing they did on that vacation. Each chair is a different color. Again, I have no clue why, though it’s possible each took a whole can of paint so they just mixed it up with the colors. Our chair in this story is red.

When the report of the tornado came through on the national news, what caught everybody’s attention was the fact that it blew the huge red chair, as well as either a dock or multiple docks, depending on the version of the report, out into and/or across the lake.

We come up to the area for our snowbird summers. Family and friends are there. In visiting my friend and seeing her house damage, we noticed a dock still out in the lake in the second week of June. It hadn’t floated too far, so we were able to recognize it for the local municipal dock, a huge “T” shape with railings, perfect for kids with poles to go out on and try their hand at catching the abundance of 3” sunfish which had otherwise been enjoying the shade the dock cast only to get a sharp pain in their lip when they thought they’d also found the bonus of a quick meal. Several days later as we passed on the highway we noticed it had finally been towed back into place. I can only think it took a council meeting to justify the expense on their tiny town budget to get it hauled back. Taxes will be up a bit next year I’m sure.

But the red chair was nowhere to be seen. Yet. I expect it needed some TLC after its wild ride, not to mention another expense getting it hauled back in. Earlier this week my friend noted it had finally been put back in place, so I took a look on my trip through this morning. Yep, it’s there, right along the shore of North Center Lake, sporting flags sticking out on both sides for the holiday.

They must be expecting a possible repeat of its wild ride some time in the future. It’s been freshly painted, still mostly red. But they also painted a bright, huge, yellow life preserver on the chair!

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/1/2107780/-Putting-a-little-humor-into-chaos-A-tornado-story-and-its-aftermath

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