A large pine falls on a home during the 1999 Blowdown storm. Photo courtesy of Jim Cordes

By Joe Friedrichs of WTIP Radio News - June 4, 2019

In part two of WTIP’s commemorative look back on the 1999 Boundary Waters Blowdown storm, we share the stories of four people who were in different areas located near, or in, the Boundary Waters during the storm.

Sharing their stories are Bruce Kerfoot, Nancy Piragis, Myron Bursheim and Jeanne Kegler. Kerfoot was at Gunflint Lake during the storm. Piragis was guiding a group of women on a canoe trip on the western side of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Bursheim was at his cabin on the shores of McFarland Lake near the west edge of the BWCAW. And Kegler was in the community of Tofte on the North Shore of Lake Superior.

The similarities between the stories are expected, but so too are the differences in what the storm did in the four different areas of northeastern Minnesota.

To listen to the story, follow this link to the WTIP website.  https://www.wtip.org/blowdown-series-part-two-four-corners-storm