Storms cause flooding, power outages
Thunderstorms dumped two to three inches of rain across the Twin Cities Tuesday night and caused some city streets to flood.
And as of 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, more than 2,300 Xcel Energy customers were still without power.
Xcel spokesman Tom Hoen said most of the outages are scattered across the West Metro, including a Maple Grove and Southwest Minneapolis. But about 400 East Metro customers were also affected.
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Hoen said he expects power will be restored by this afternoon.
"It's supposed to be in the 90s and just thicker than heck again today in the humidity, so the guys will be working a little bit slower," Hoen said. "But we've got everybody available in the field right now working to get these people back up."
About 1.25 inches of rain fell at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport within an hour Tuesday night, said meteorologist Mike Griesinger of the National Weather Service.
"The big thing the rain did in the Twin Cities is it had kind of your typical urban flooding -- heavy downpours -- which in turn, in a city, leads to drainage issues," Griesinger said. "There's no way the storm drain system can handle that, and things just start backing up."
Streets were underwater and cars submerged in parts of the metro area. One area hit hard hit was Uptown Minneapolis, where neighbors helped move vehicles stalled at intersections in waist-deep water.
And in western Wisconsin, flooding washed out roads and bridges, and some residents reported water in their homes.
In Duluth, recent downpours, including about 4.5 inches that dropped Saturday, caused flooding in the western part of the city and has delayed pothole-patching efforts. "A good portion of the work we completed has been washed out by the rain," said Kelly Fleissner, who oversees Duluth's street maintenance, in a statement today.
Gravel roads and alleys were damaged the most, Fleissner said, and it could take three weeks for crews to complete the repairs.
The Twin Cities will get some relief Wednesday from rain, with a forecast of hot and sunny. But another round of storms is expected late Thursday.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
