| Name | Debra Kay KENT  |
| Birth Date | 25 Jan 1960 Age: 46 |
| Birth Place | St.mary's Hospital, Hennepin Co., Mpls, MN |
| Baptism Place | Epiphany Catholic |
| Family Get Togethers Date | 4 Jul 1999 Age: 39 |
| Family Get Togethers Place | Ensign Lake, Boundary Waters MN |
| Family Get Togethers Memo | Debra and Kyle were in the boundary waters when 80-90 mile straight line winds ravaged the forest. The two were separtated during the storm but both lived through it to remember. Debra's story was brought to television July 20th, on WCCO Channel 4 in Minneapolis who did a feature on the storm and their experience. "WCCO DIMENSION FEATURE". This was seen by Duane Kuss at 10:00 pm in Cold Spring, MN. |
| Occupation | Graphic Designer/ Floral Designer |
| 1 | Richard Raymond Kuss |
| Birth Date | 31 Mar 1960 Age: 46 |
| Birth Place | St.Mary's Hospital, Hennepin Co., Mpls, MN |
| Occupation | Welder |
| Father | Raymond Richard Kuss (1938-) |
| Mother | Janet SMITH (1938-) |
| Marriage Date | 28 Oct 1978 |
| Marriage Place | Osseo Lutheran, Mpls Area maybe Fridley? |
| Address | 3827 225TH LN NW, SAINT FRANCIS, MN 55070-9654 |
| Phone/FAX | (763)753-1905 |
| Children | Keith Richard (1979-) |
| Kyle David (1984-) |
From: Debbie Kuss
Wednesday, July 7, 1999
Subject: Boundary Water Canoe Area, Ensign Lake, Minnesota USA
Hi Everyone,
Thought I would give you all a little update on our experience in the BWCA. We are all very thankful no one was hurt or killed.
We drove to the cabin Wednesday night. Of course everyone was so keyed up it was hard to sleep. We started our morning when one of the little girls (7 years old) fell down the loft hole. She said, "I missed the first step". She was fine, but scared everyone at 3:00 a.m. We left around 4:45 a little behind schedule (moving a group of 14 takes a little extra time) than hit intense fog, arrived at the Wolf Center at around 7:00 a.m. We had two separate groups, we knew we could not camp together or travel together but were hoping to meet up a couple of times. At least on Sunday for Joe's 6th birthday. We had packed in a couple of small presents. He was a little disappointed he was not going to get fireworks, since he thought they were a part of his birthday.
There was Lisa's group, with 4 small children ages 6-8. Another couple Jay and Debbie and their two daughters Amanda and Amber joined Lisa's family. Our group was Sue, Gaylon, Eva, Chris, Andy-14, Carley-12, Kyle-14 and I. Oh and we can't forget Holly the yellow lab.
We had a beautiful campsite facing West. The other group was down approximately one mile facing east. Sue, Gaylon, Kyle and I had set our tents out on the point to hopefully cut down on the bugs. Eva and her family were down the trail tucked in a small clearing. We had beautiful weather, a beautiful campsite and fair fishing. The wild flowers and the birds were plentiful and beautiful, something we didn't see as much of when we typically go in the fall. We had seen moose, deer, eagles, beaver, rabbits, turtles and a otter that took the fish that Carley had just cleaned off the rock and was having supper just down the bank, for all of us to watch and appreciate. Kyle and Carley would catch zip lock bags full of cray fish in the evenings.
It was Sunday the 4th of July, extreemely hot and humid. After breakfast the kids decided they would go down to Lisa's camp, go for a quick swim and wish Joe a Happy Birthday. They put on their life jackets and the three took off in a canoe. It was so hot that the five of us and Holly were swimming at 10:30 a.m. just to cool off. We were sitting on the rocks relaxing and the guys decided they would go fishing. Eva, Sue and I were gathering daises and vines to make the girls crowns of daises. If started to rumble a little and we were wishing the kids would be pulling in at any moment. We did not want them in the water if it started lightening.
Sue had made a comment about how strange the birds were acting. We had groups of starlings flocking together, flying from tree to tree making all kinds of noise. In after thought, they were being pushed toward us by the wind. We decided we would move off the point and finish under the tarp we had set up behind a small group of trees in our kitchen/cooking area. It looked like rain so we gathered our rain gear and were weaving away.
All of the sudden, we could hear the wind picking up, the guys were quickly trying to get the "Red Old Town" canoe tied up. They scurried about trying to get a few things out of the boat and under the tarp. I got up and walked around the small group of trees to look at the weather. All I could see was a green wall coming straight towards us. Within seconds it hit. We were all under the tarp. Chris was struggling to get Holly's collar back on so it would be easier to hang on to her. We were scrambling to get our rain gear on. All of the sudden the tarp started ripping loose forcing us all to huddle closer together. Holly was in the middle with the rest of us tryping to keep the tarp around the group and holding onto each other. As a group it was easier to stay grounded in the hurricane like winds.
Gaylon and Sue were on the edge keeping eye on any trees to dodge... they were coming down all around us. A large white pine tree top came down approximately 3 feet behind us. Eva meanwhile watched the ground heave up and down next to her, as the tree just in front of us struggled to keep upright. The noice level was intense.
Sue was wondering if we should move off of the point since we were getting hit directly. Gaylon felt that it was safer where we were because everything had already come down around us and missed us. To venture off into the woods would most likely be even more dangerous. So we rode it out, all huddled together.
As I glanced at the faces in the group I was suddenly over come by a all consuming question, "Where are my children?" Eva had the same concern. We felt and hoped that Lisa had them, it was agonizing to consider anything else. We prayed they hadn't started back and if that were the case, certainly they would have had enough time to find shelter on shore. Once during the down pour, I left the group to look to see if our tents were still standing, but I couldn't see them.
I didn't have a watch on but speculate that the storm hit us around 12:30 to 1:00 p.m. and lasted for 30 minutes. When it started to let up we realized that Gaylon had nothing on other than a cotton tee shirt and a pair of wind pants. He was shaking violently and we all feared hypothermia might be setting in. We quickly moved him to the center of the group and Chris went to his tent in search of some dry clothes. The tent now had a tree laying on top of it but some way or another he was able to pull out a dry wool shirt. Gaylon stripped off his wet shirt and within seconds felt the immediate warmth of the wool fibers next to his cold wet skin.
By some chance of luck the coffeepot was ready to start, all we needed was to find a dry match to start the burner. We soon had Gaylon sipping down some hot coffee. I truly believe at that moment we all were in a state of shock. We started to look around and realized that some 30-40 trees had dropped in our immediate vacinity. By some miracle none of us were hurt. Both Sue's and my tent were still there but flat as a pancake. It appeared the combination of rain water, tent stakes and the contents inside were enough to keep them on the ground. Eva's tent was under a tree and Carley and Andy's tent was still for the most part intact.
Then we realized we were missing a canoe. The "Red Old Town" had been on the South side of a point tied to the rocks with a 70 lb. nylon rope. The rope was snapped and the canoe was gone. The canoe was eventually found over a half a mile away by a group of young men, volunteers who had worked the past two weeks on a 220 rod portage. To get there, the canoe had to fly airborne over our point, across the bay, over another point of land and finally into the bay beyond. Two hours after the storm the group showed up at our camp site with the "Red Old Town" in tow.
The wind had finally died down enough that we were going to look for our kids. Chris, Eva and I took off in a canoe, leaving Sue, Gaylon and Holly back at camp. Eva had enough sense about her to grab rain gear and dry clothes for the kids. It was agonizing, we were searching the banks for any sign of them, we had gotten about half the way and the kids were coming around the corner with Lisa and Jay. When we finally saw one another and realized that everyone in that camp had survived, I couldn't stop the tears from flowing.
The other camp had also lost a canoe. The funny thing is, Eva and Lisa had switched canoes for the week and they both lost each others canoe. Lisa was quite relieved to find that her canoe was missing because the fact that Sue's canoe was missing. We decided to follow them back to look for their canoe. We had 16 people and only 4 canoes at this point. Another group of young men on the point were coming out in a canoe to help look. It always inspires me when I see how people rally in times of trouble. These young guys located the canoe across the bay buried under fallen trees. They jumped out waist deep, pulled it out, and emptied it for us. Chris transferred over into it and got it back to camp.
When I walked into their camp I could see they had experienced their own set of nightmares as well. I grabbed Joe to give hiim a birthday hug and he said to me, "I thought you blew away", and again the tears flowed down without me being able to stop them. Lisa, thank God, did not let the kids leave earlier even though they thought they should get back. It was a blessing in many ways that the kids were there to not only help with the small children but they also had more protection. They were in a tent, when they realized all the trees were coming down towards the tent. They lowered the children down into a shear rock ledge. Carley was with all the small children, under a tarp trying to keep them from panicking by telling them stories and singing. Kyle and Andy werer in another spot of the rocks. Lisa had grabbed a tent tarp and was trying to get it to the kids when the wind picked her up. It was at that moment another miracle from God happened, as Lisa is about to sail off into the sky, Kyle and Andy reached up, grabbed her, and pulling her back to the ground. I will have to let you hear their story from Lisa or Scott because there were so many things that happened at their camp during the storm.
By only the Grace of God did we all come out of the experience with no injuries or fatalities. After hugging and regaining strength from each other, we took off for our camp. I knew by this time Sue would be worried. Sue and Gaylon got enough poles between the two tents to set one tent up. The four of us would sleep together the last night. Eva was able to duct tape her tent together enough to have shelter. We had everything that was wet all strung out around the camp. Kyle, Eva and her kids started some supper. We started packing away anything we could knowing in the morning we'd begin our treck back to civilization.
I made my way back to the bathroom. Along the path I notice a tree that had been pulled out of the ground and was rocketing through the woods when it abruptly came upon two trees that were close enough together that the tree stopped in mid air when the trees roots crashed against the two trees. So now the tree was suspended in the air about 5-6 feet above the ground. The sheer force of the winds was evident everywhere. Can you imagine what would have happened if one of those trees had hit someone... it would have surely killed them immediately.
The entire group was totally exhausted both physically and mentally. We started turning in around 10:00 p.m. That night another set of storms hit the camp including rain, thunder and an intense lightning show. Not many of us got much sleep that night.
We were promptly up at 6:00 a.m. The canoes were loaded by 8:00 a.m. Lisa and her group were at our camp by 9:00 a.m. and we decided to travel together. This decision was based on our mutual safety and given the experiences of the previous day, we felt it was necessary. While we were packing that morning, we had 3 float planes fly over our camp just above the trees looking for people in need of help. It looked like someone had dropped a bomb. If the trees were not up-rooted, they were sheered off. We got to our portage and because it was connected to a lake that allowed up to 25 horse outboard motors, someone had already been up this far and had used chainsaws to open the portage.
We paddled out the 7 miles to find we could not get through using the canoe access. A group of kiakers suggested we go around the point to a boat landing. When I was finally walking across the parking lot headed for my truck, trees had fallen on cars everywhere I looked. We all faired well in the parking lot, which once again we credited to the angels who had been watching over us for the past 24 hours. We loaded up our gear and canoes and were on our way to Ely. The road along the way forced us to cross down powerlines, to evade toppled transformers and to criss cross between downed trees. In Ely Gaylon was talking to some people only to find out that we were in the heart of the storm. Things were sketchy at this point. They were just begginning to assess the damages and people were just beginning to make their way out.
They had airlifted 4 injured persons out early that morning. By the time it was over a total of 24 had to be flown out one in critical condition and another with a spinal injury. Most of the injuries were from fallen trees and flying debris. Today, July 7th, there are still cars in entry point parking lots which means there are still people out there yet to return. The winds during the storm blew between 80 and 100 miles per hour. The straight line winds took out a swath twelve miles wide and 30 miles long. They estimate the storm damaged one third of the over 1 million acres BWCA.
After a very long day, a sleepless night, a 7 mile paddle and a 300 mile drive home, I arrived home at 8:30 p.m. Monday. It was back to work on Tuesday and finally about 3:00 p.m. that day... I hit the wall. All I wanted to do was sleep, veg and/or cry.
I'm feeling much better today and thank God and Our Angels for seeing us all out safely.
What a 4th of July, Joe got his fireworks after all and a birthday we will all never forget.
The funny thing is I think I need to go back this summer and will most likely at least try for the August Trip.