REGIONAL— Mother Nature flipped the switch on the seasons this past Friday, delivering up an emphatic conclusion to what had been one of the mildest North Country autumns in recent memory.

A powerful winter storm system brought as much as two feet of snow and high winds to much of northeastern Minnesota. The wintry blast, which began in the early morning hours and continued throughout the evening, caked roads in ice and compacted snow, and left 8,000 customers of Lake Country Power with electrical service at the height of the storm.

The storm brought a brief period of rain before it turned to snow and the transition ensured that the initial snowfall clung heavily to trees and power lines. With winds gusting to 40 miles an hour, the effect proved devastating for the rural cooperative’s electrical grid.

Repair crews were hampered by the deep snow and the soft, still unfrozen ground underneath, which turned some areas to mud. The heavy snow proved difficult to plow, which made for rough roads across the region. As of Monday, Lake Country Power reported that fewer than 600 customers remained without power, the vast majority located in the northern half of St. Louis County. Crews from Lake States Construction, Lake States Tree Service, Okay Construction and Highline Construction all pitched in for the repairs. It was the second extended power outage in Lake Country Power’s service territory in the past six months.

The State Patrol reported more than 340 accidents across a broad swath of Minnesota stemming from the storm, which hit hardest in a track from southwestern to northeastern Minnesota.

Northwestern St. Louis County was the hardest hit, as Orr reported 24.6 inches.

“I figure we got at least a couple feet,” said Jerry Pohlman, up at Nelson’s Resort on Crane Lake. Pohlman said he had expected to lose power, and had prepared by filling buckets of water in advance, but while it flickered a few times, it never went out, he said. Pohlman credited line clearing that Lake Country Power crews had completed in the area over the summer.

The storm did leave two elderly men and a woman stranded miles down a remote forest road several miles from Melgeorge’s Elephant Lake Lodge. The St. Louis County Rescue Squad, with critical assistance from lodge co-owner Steve Koch, was able to reach the couple, who had been staying at a hunting cabin when they opted to leave in hopes of avoiding being snowed in. Instead, they got stuck in deep snow a few miles down the road. Koch was able to get rescuers to the scene using a snowmobile trail groomer.

The storm dumped the first appreciable snow of the season and it brought an exceptionally mild fall to an abrupt end. As of Monday, roads remained in rough shape and with more snow forecasted for Tuesday and Wednesday, road conditions could remain poor for some time to come. Slightly warmer conditions are forecast for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, but high temperatures around freezing, combined with clouds, and occasional snow chances throughout the period, likely won’t offer much improvement.

Snow totals reported in the area included 24.6 inches near Orr, 20 inches in Bear River, 19 inches in Tower, 15 inches in Cook and about a foot in the Ely area. Snow totals dropped quickly to the east and south of Ely.