Power restored to most customers after windstorms

Utility officials say they're wrapping up efforts to restore power in the wake of the record-setting windstorm that swept through the region on Tuesday night.

Outages in the Twin Cities are down below a hundred this morning, after peaking at nearly 45,000 early Wednesday as the storm came through.

The storm blew over poles and blew trees into power lines around the region, and utility officials said the efforts to restore power were being slowed by damages to homes and buildings, as well.

Spokesman Tom Hoen said outages have returned to routine levels.

"We did declare operations back to normal by 11 o'clock last night from the outages that were caused by the windstorm that began Tuesday afternoon," Hoen said.

Winds gusting as high as 60 mph were reported in the Twin Cities earlier this week, and peaked at 65 mph in western Minnesota during the storm.