Severe storms barrel across Minnesota, leaving thousands without power
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Severe storms overnight dropped large hail, downed trees and knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses across Minnesota.
Line crews were making progress on repairing outages — but Xcel Energy and other utilities reported more than 40,000 customers remained without power as of just before 5 p.m. Sunday, amid a sweltering summer day across the region.
A line of intense storms formed Saturday night near Moorhead and Pelican Rapids and moved southeast, paralleling the Interstate 94 corridor. The storms reached the Twin Cities during the early morning hours.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport reported a wind gust of 62 mph just after 1 a.m. Weather spotters reported hailstones larger than baseballs near Monticello, and the size of golf balls in Big Lake and Oakdale.
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The National Weather Service received reports of trees and large branches down in Pelican Rapids, Long Prairie, Grey Eagle, Sartell, Rockville, Annandale, Buffalo, St. Michael, Minneapolis, Edina and Lakeville.
And a large tree downed by the storms crushed a car along a street in St. Paul. There were no immediate reports of injuries from the severe weather.
As the storms continued moving southeast, torrential rain led to flash flooding in parts of western Wisconsin.
More strong storms are possible in the region later Sunday.
Power outages
As of daybreak Sunday, Xcel Energy reported more than 70,000 of its Minnesota customers without power in the Twin Cities metro area and St. Cloud.
Lake Region Electric Cooperative reported outages affecting more than 10,000 of its customers in Otter Tail County. The utility said its crews were finding not just downed lines, but also power poles that were broken by the strong winds.
“Restoration will take time as crews place poles, hang wires and clear vegetation,” Lake Region officials reported Sunday morning. They urged people to stay away from downed lines.
Otter Tail Power Company and Connexus Energy were among the other utilities responding to significant outages on Sunday morning.
The number of homes and businesses without power dropped through the morning Sunday as line crews made repairs, but there was a lot of work left to be done.
As of 10 a.m., Xcel reported more than 60,000 customers without power in Minnesota. Lake Region reported outages affecting more than 3,000 customers.
As of just before 5 p.m., Xcel reported just over 40,000 of its Minnesota customers remained without power. Lake Region reported outages affecting more than 900 customers.
The storms “created a lot of very small outages across our system, which has increased the total restoration time. Crews will continue to work into the evening, however at this time we know that we will not be able to get power restored to all members until tomorrow,” Lake Region officials said in an update Sunday afternoon.
Tornado reports
Earlier Saturday, other storms in the region produced reports of tornadoes.
A trained weather spotter reported a tornado in southern Minnesota, between Medford and Kenyon, at about 5 p.m.
And weather spotters reported a tornado in eastern North Dakota, west of Wahpeton, at about 7:30 p.m.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries from either tornado.
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