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SPEAKER: Residents of Duluth and across Northern Minnesota are assessing damage left behind by a major thunderstorm that roared through the region early this morning, uprooting trees and leaving tens of thousands of people without power. Wind gusts toppled trees on top of homes and cars, took down power lines, and blocked streets. Dan Kraker has more.

DAN KRAKER: Like many people across Northern Minnesota, Arlan Peterson of Duluth jerked awake at 3:30 this morning to the sound of howling winds and booming thunder.

ARLAN PETERSON: We went down to the basement. I didn't know what was going on at first, if it was a tornado.

DAN KRAKER: Turns out it with straight line winds that hit 70 to 80 miles per hour, taking down about 12 trees in his yard, including several giant pines.

ARLAN PETERSON: I heard a snap and then a crunch, and it hit the swing set and crushed it. Then a few minutes later, the big red pine came down, and that hit the-- When it hit the peak of the roof, it snapped off. And the rest of it's laying in the backyard.

DAN KRAKER: Those trees also ripped away the power line connecting Peterson's house to the electric grid. He's one of tens of thousands of people across Northern Minnesota who lost power last night.

AMY RUTLEDGE: This is really probably the worst storm to strike our electrical system in the past 15 years.

DAN KRAKER: Amy Rutledge is a spokesperson for Minnesota Power, which reports 44,000 people without power, including about a third of the city of Duluth.

AMY RUTLEDGE: The damage was so severe in the city of Duluth that the restoration efforts in the city, within some of those neighborhoods may take up to as long as three to four days.

DAN KRAKER: Minnesota Power has called an additional crews to help restore power. The outage has forced businesses to close, shuttered gas stations, and cut power to stoplights, causing backups at intersections. Rutledge says 90 lineworkers will join the effort for tomorrow, including some from as far away as Saint Louis, Missouri. The storm also cut power to about 26,000 customers of Lake Country Power based in Grand Rapids. As of this afternoon, the utility has restored power to about 5,000 households. While the storm killed two campers in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Saint Louis County Sheriff, Ross Litman, says he's not aware of any serious injuries in the County.

ROSS LITMAN: And that truly is a miracle. We've been blessed twice now in the last two weeks with major storms. And by some amazing act of God, we've experienced no serious injuries or fatalities.

DAN KRAKER: The severe thunderstorms developed over North Dakota late last night and swept across Northern Minnesota at speeds of 50 to 60 miles per hour. A wind gauge on top of a government building in downtown Duluth measured a gust of 100 miles per hour. Dan Miller is with the National Weather Service in Duluth.

DAN MILLER: People need to remember that straight line thunderstorm winds, which are very common up here, can do damage that is just on par with tornadoes, especially with all the trees that we have.

DAN KRAKER: The storm caught many people by surprise in Duluth. Miller says a severe thunderstorm watch was first issued at 12:30 AM after most people were asleep.

DAN MILLER: Sometimes we can nail these kinds of events a day or two days in advance. Other times, they get highly organized very quickly and you almost have to play catch up because none of the models handle them very well.

DAN KRAKER: One of Duluth's operational towers was also damaged during the storm, so it was unable to transmit a warning siren. Patricia Oakes of Duluth was awakened by her cell phone around 3:30 this morning by the severe weather warning.

PATRICIA OAKES: Got the dog. And as I was going down the basement, it was either a loud clap of thunder or a tree hitting the house. And it turned out it was three trees hitting my house.

DAN KRAKER: Two big pines are now leaning against her roof. Another huge trunk broke off and is perched right on top of her roof. Now she can see daylight through her ceiling. Erin Finnegan with Eagle Lake Forestry in Duluth was there to assess the damage.

ERIN FINNEGAN: Right. A house like this that has three, four, trees on the house and a couple on the garage here, these will be priority first and get everyone so that if there's another rainstorm, we don't want additional damage to their homes.

DAN KRAKER: And there's a chance there could be another rainstorm soon. The National Weather Service says there's a possibility for more severe weather in Northern Minnesota on Saturday. Dan Kraker, Minnesota Public Radio News, Duluth.