Mark Edwards was at work inside the Board of Trade Building in downtown Duluth early Thursday when its chimney crashed through the seventh-floor roof. Edwards, owner of The Exchange deli and bakery, heard it from the first floor.
"All of a sudden, I hear it rumble ... all this crap came down through that (chimney) chute," he said. "Then it was over. It was only like 20 seconds...and it did all this damage."
Lightning and straight-line winds struck the building on First Street at Third Avenue West during Thursday morning's storm that left damage across much of Duluth. High winds - a weather station atop the nearby St. Louis County Government Services Center clocked wind gusts in excess of 100 mph - sent the Board of Trade's chimney crashing through the roof into one of the Minnesota Ballet's costume storage rooms.
Sandy Hoff, president of F.I. Salter Real Estate Services, which manages the building, said they still were determining the scope of the damage on Friday. They are working on ways to get tenants back in safely and quickly, Hoff said. Parts of the building may reopen within a week.
The focus in the coming days is on removing the rubble, stabilizing the building and weatherproofing by patching the damaged section with a temporary roof, he said.
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"While there's significant damage, the repairs can be made. The building is definitely salvageable," Hoff said. "The building was built so solidly that even with tons of brick and mortar on it, it didn't crash through to the first floor."
Hoff said no other tenant spaces were damaged. He said the chimney fell in an area where the building originally had a daylight corridor, now the Minnesota Ballet's storage room.
Hoff said until the rubble is cleared, the weight on the sixth-floor ceiling poses a serious risk to all tenants. He said the chimney also damaged portions of the building's elevator towers.
Steve McDonald, chief engineer for F.I. Salter, said he hopes a general contractor will assess the building by Monday.
The fallen chimney, which crashed through the south-end roof, was more than 51 feet tall and 12 feet wide, McDonald said.
"The ballet is the one who suffered the worst," he added.
McDonald said he hopes to keep the damage isolated so they can restore power to the building and allow some tenants to do business again.
Edwards said The Exchange is temporarily moving to the Medical Arts Building, 324 W. Superior St., in the former location of How Sweet It Is Cakes.
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"For a few days we're going to be out of commission," Edwards said of The Exchange and other Board of Trade building tenants. "We're hoping to do our best from there."
