US homes inundated by lake ice

Living on the shores of a pristine freshwater lake may seem idyllic to most of us, but residents of Izaty’s Resort, Minnesota experienced the downside of lakeside living on Monday night.

Mille Lacs Lake, Onamia is 536 square kilometre lake approximately 160km north of Minneapolis. Parts of the lake freeze during the cold winters of interior North America.

Milder conditions in April and May see the ice begin to break up, but a cold front that swept across the lake on Monday night, brought strong north to northwesterly winds with gusts of 80 to 90kph.

The winds drove the slushy ice onto lakeside gardens, piling it up in front of houses. The ice exerted sufficient pressure to cause significant damage to at least some of the properties.

This is a far from isolated incident. Reports from Ochre Beach on the southern shore of Dauphin Lake, Manitoba confirm that a similar build-up of lake ice destroyed six houses and damaged another 14. Extensive damage occurred in a similar incident in the town in 2011.