CATO -- "It only lasted a minute at most," said Daryle Loguidice from the Cross Lake Marina. But that quick storm Thursday afternoon was powerful enough to cause some major damage to his business.
High winds uprooted massive trees and tossed them aside. "It was like a freight train. It was scary, I literally thought I was going to die," said Wayne Mydlinksi. "I saw limbs blowing all around."
Luckily, no one was hurt when the tree came crashing down. Thursday night, clean up crews were using chainsaws to cut up the tree trunks and remove limbs from the roof of the restaurant. "We had the local assessor come through already and he has cleared us for business, so structurally we are safe, but its just a matter of getting ready and open for tomorrow morning," said Loguidice.
In all, seven trees fell on the marina's property, which is keeping Lennox Tree Pros busy. They say the ground is so saturated from all this rain we've had, trees can't withstand even a little bit of wind. "It's like a ship's sail, they just blow right over," said owner Thomas Lennox.
Now, the marina is scrambling to get everything cleaned up before Memorial Day, their busiest weekend of the year.
"This was supposed to be a party weekend, but it's going to be a work weekend. There are several trees down on my property, but we'll make the most of it," said Mydlinkski.
Cross Lake has been closed to boaters for a few weeks because of high water levels. The Cross Lake Marina says they will be open this weekend, and hope the lake is too.
