Brianna Sucik is scrambling to relocate her wedding this Saturday after the violent weekend storm tore through northern Minnesota and snuffed out her plans to marry at Madden's Resort.
"It's heartbreaking seeing a staple of the Brainerd lakes area torn to pieces," she said Tuesday.
Sucik was among hundreds of people who saw plans dashed after the storm damaged some of the area's most historic resorts. Resort owners are rushing to reopen, power companies are working around the clock to restore power and local officials are frantically logging the damage during the height of the vacation season.
Around Gull Lake, more than 900 vacationers were displaced after 70 mile-per-hour winds tore through the area. The storm pushed trees on top of cars, overturned boats, twisted metal decks and blew the roof off a building at Madden's.
Madden's and Cragun's were shut down by the storm and remained without power Tuesday night.
Dutch Cragun, owner of Cragun's, said this is the first time weather has forced the resort to close.
"This is the worst, in my experience, in 75 years since my dad started building Cragun's in 1940," he said.
Madden's and Cragun's resorts have worked together, competed against one another and grown into major vacation enterprises. The resorts have kept their doors open even during wartime, Cragun said.