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“We’ll make it through”: North Shore businesses still reeling after winter storm

Dec 30, 2022 09:38AM ● By Content Editor
Photo: Superior Citrus' greenhouse caved in on December 24th (Northern News Now)

By 
Quinn Gorham - Northern News Now - December 29, 2022

A week after a severe winter storm slammed Minnesota’s North Shore, several businesses are busy rebuilding.

Superior Citrus, a Two Harbors-based business that provides local produce to farmer’s markets around the area, lost its entire greenhouse in last week’s storm.

“I started removing snow, and I can just hear [my wife] yelling. So I turned around and looked at her, and she was pointing at the greenhouse,” said Shawn Amundson.

The roof of the greenhouse collapsed from the weight of the snow and the high winds pushing against it.

The ordeal will likely set the company back tens of thousands of dollars.

“It’s gonna be hard enough to see if we can get it rebuilt. If we can get things going, again, even if we started today, if everything is buttoned back up, it will still take about three months to get, the plants and stuff like that back to where we were,” Amundson said.

The bulk of the structural damage was sustained on one end of the building, but the business also lost almost 30 different varieties of produce.

“Like we have a system in there, but now we’re just like day one with the system and we’re gonna have to start over,” Amundson said.

Up the shore, several other businesses sustained damage with gusts up to 80 miles per hour in some places.

In Grand Marais, several businesses were damaged, including South of the Border Cafe which lost a 1,500-pound HVAC system in the storm.

For many, the damage came out of nowhere.

“Most of the snow was just built on off the greenhouse so we didn’t expect that at all,” said Amundson, “but we’ll make it through. And we’re hoping we can get it back up and running.”

You can donate to their GoFundMe here.

Superior Citrus is also selling chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys to help recuperate the costs.


To read this original story and more news, follow this link to the Northern News Now website.

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