The National Weather Service has confirmed that some of the damage left by severe storms across central and northern Minnesota on Wednesday evening, June 12 was caused by tornadoes.

Severe storms flipped a camper along State Highway 6 near Rabbit Lake north of Crosby on Wednesday night. The National Weather Service says the damage was caused by a tornado. (Kirsti Marohn / MPR News)

Meteorologists are still working to determine exactly how many tornadoes touched down and how strong they were.

Wednesday’s storms left extensive damage to trees and power lines, flipped boats and campers and damaged some buildings — with the Brainerd Lakes region particularly hard-hit. There were no reports of serious injuries.

The Weather Service office in Duluth sent storm survey teams Thursday to the Brainerd Lakes area, as well as east into parts of Aitkin and Carlton counties.

Those teams confirmed tornado damage at:

Rabbit Lake along State Highway 6 north of Crosby
Clamshell Lake near Crosslake
Cedar and Hammal lakes in western Aitkin County

“The NWS has not yet determined if the damage in Crow Wing County and Aitkin County is all from a single continuous tornado or if there were several tornadoes. Due to the rural and forested landscape, not all parts of the damage path were immediately accessible by ground,” the Weather Service reported in an update Thursday evening.

The agency is working to get aerial imagery to further assess the damage, and determine the path and strength of the tornado or tornadoes.

Storm survey crews also confirmed a weak tornado tracked for about 5 miles near Wright in Carlton County.

Wednesday night’s storms also caused significant damage in areas from St. Cloud and Sartell north toward Little Falls and Camp Ripley.

Residents and utility crews will continue working on storm cleanup on Friday. As of Friday morning, only a few dozen homes and businesses across central and northern Minnesota remained without power — down from more than 15,000 in the immediate aftermath of the storms.

Crow Wing Power reported that its crews had to replace more than 16 broken utility poles, in addition to damage to power lines.

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The Twins held a party on Friday, hosting 35,631 of their closest friends, wearing their new threads and treating everyone to a postgame Flo Rida concert. And while a group of party crashers tried their best to break up the fun, they were ultimately unsuccessful in their bid.

In front of the largest crowd of the season, on the day the Twins debuted their long-awaited City Connect uniforms, Minnesota stormed back twice to beat the Oakland Athletics 6-5 in 10 innings at Target Field.

Max Kepler played hero with a walk-off single in the 10th inning after a long home run earlier tied the game. His late heroics came after an error, hit-by-pitch — Kepler was hit flush in the elbow — and a pair of walks forced in a run to tie the game in the eighth.

The Twins were unable to get more out of their bases-loaded opportunity against flame-throwing closer Mason Miller, sending to the game to the ninth tied. But the Twins’ own hard-throwing closer, Jhoan Duran, threw two scoreless innings in the ninth and 10th to keep the Twins’ hopes alive and allow them to prevail.

The dramatic ending came on a night that started inauspiciously for the Twins when Simeon Woods Richardson issued walks to the first two batters he faced.

Both would haunt.

Before he got out of a 37-pitch first inning, Woods Richardson served up a grand slam to Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers, putting the Twins in a deep hole early.

The Twins eventually climbed out of it, using a Byron Buxton RBI triple in the second inning and Kepler three-run homer in the sixth to do so. The home run was the 81st of Kepler’s career at Target Field, making him the new record holder at the ballpark, which opened in 2010.

It also rejuvenated the crowd, which had been yearning for something to cheer for. But the game wasn’t tied for long.

On a night where Twins pitchers walked six hitters, a one-out free pass to JJ Bleday came back to bite the Twins. Former Twin Brent Rooker’s triple off the wall in center field brought home Bleday, giving Oakland back the lead.

That held until the Twins took advantage of the free bases Lucas Erceg gave them in the eighth.

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St. Paul broke away early with eight runs in the first two innings, then rode the strong pitching of David Festa to beat the Louisville Bats 9-5 Friday night in an International League game at Louisville Slugger Field.

Festa tied a franchise record with 10 strikeouts, the third time this season he has reached that mark. He limited the Bats to two runs over his six innings.

The Saints struck out 16 on the night, the second time they’ve fanned that many this season. Both have come against the Bats.

Seven Saints recorded two hits each, including Edouard Julien, Brooks Lee, Matt Wallner and Jair Camargo, who led St. Paul with three runs batted in.

The teams meet again tonight in the fifth game of their six-game series.

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