Wall of ice damages homes, threatens resort near Lake Mille Lacs

Driven by high winds, ice from Lake Mille Lacs has gone on a rampage in recent days, bursting into homes, tearing up the shoreline, blocking roads and forming massive mounds in yards.

The problems are mostly in the Garrison, Minn., area on the western shore of the lake, which has taken the brunt of the east winds accompanying recent rains. Last year, it was the southeast corner of the lake, near Isle and Wahkon.

On Thursday, Onamia resident Jerome Kryzer stood on a green at Izatys Resort golf course, eyeing the ice, which stood taller than him in areas. Kryzer said the ice already had swept onto the golf course and much of the resort's land.

"It's something you just have to live with," he said.

Ice broke through a large window at Randy Dykhoff's home north of Garrison over the weekend, filling a corner of the living room nearly to the ceiling. On Thursday, Dykhoff, of Mound, said he carried several wheelbarrow loads of ice from the house. It was the first time the home has been damaged by ice since 1997, when he bought the property.

While bays and other shallow areas are losing their winter ice, the majority of the 200-square-mile lake remains covered with gray ice, Sherrie Lindner, a cashier at the Garrison Supervalu, said as she looked across the lake Thursday. Most of the smaller lakes in the area went ice-free earlier this week.

Ice-out on Mille Lacs came on May 16 last year, the latest date on record. Owners of resorts and other businesses around the lake are hoping it's gone by May 10, the day the walleye fishing season opens.

The forecast is promising to help, with high temperatures Friday and through the weekend in the upper 50s and 60s from the Lake Mille Lacs area down through the Twin Cities.

Staff photographer Elizabeth Flores contributed information to this report.