Days after four tornadoes swept through northern Minnesota, residents living along Hammal Lake in Aitkin continue cleaning up storm damage.

Trees are down everywhere on the east side of the lake, where boat docks are shredded, and roofs are partially peeled off.

“I’ve seen tornadoes before, but I’ve never been in one like that,” declares Steve Benoit. “It’s not good. It’s not good.”

In one lakefront neighborhood, Dawn Leen surveyed the damage to her family’s cabin where they’ve summered for the last 20 years.

Windows are shattered or boarded up — while just yards away, the backyard is filled with debris fallen trees and branches, a crumpled-up boat dock half underwater, and their radio antenna bent in half.

“It’s so surreal,” Leen says. “You hear about it, but we’ve never been a part of something like this before, so coming up here, it’s just devastation.”

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Up and down the lakeshore, residents are clearing debris the best they can.

Joyce Schultz — who says she took shelter in her bathtub when the storm blew through — showed us where her screen house is buried under fallen timber.

She lost seven trees in all.

“I heard some kind of noise, but didn’t think anything of it,” Schultz recalls. “Of course, when you have these storms, you have all these trees hitting each other. It was only this side of the lake that got it, and my neighbor lady and I were the worst.”

“That’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” added Tom Walsh, who lives next door. “It starts darkening, and then it starts raining and it’s coming across. The wind, you hear it blowing, it was just terrific.”

With all that wind, there was plenty of debris in the water.

Residents say a pontoon blew into the lake, along with tree trunks and branches, and even materials from nearby homes.  

The storm blew through the area around 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Residents say first their electricity went out, then the skies began to quickly darken.

“It was a big, big funnel,” Benoit remembers. “All of a sudden, the lake started turning every which way and the pontoon started flying around and up and down, and trees started bending, and I told my wife, ‘We’re getting into the basement.’”

Law enforcement is already warning residents in storm-damaged areas to be alert for scammers who may be trying to take advantage of people in need of home repairs or outdoor cleanup.

For many in the Hammal Lake area, the next few days will be busy.

“This is a nightmare,” Schultz says. “I never expected this at all.”