Cleanup continues around Minnesota after snowstorm
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Updated: 5:05 p.m.
Cleanup continues throughout Minnesota on Sunday after an April Fools’ Day snowstorm damaged trees, caused power outages, and made travel difficult across the region.
The National Weather Service reported 8.5 inches of snow at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. That pushes the season snow total to 89.7 inches — the third-greatest on record for the Twin Cities.
Other snow reports relayed by the National Weather Service on Saturday morning included 12 inches in Medina, 10.5 inches in Oakdale, 10 inches near Corcoran, 9.8 inches at Mahtomedi and 9.6 inches near the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis.
St. Paul Public Works said in a tweet that limited crews are working to plow and salt roads, hills and curves throughout the city, while main streets are in good condition, residential street conditions vary.
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Liz McDonald, a spokesperson for the city of St. Paul, said the forestry department had received calls of about 300 trees or branches down in city rights-of-way. The city expects that number to go up as they begin a citywide street survey.
“At this time, we estimate we've lost approximately 150 public trees,” McDonald told MPR News, “and we expect that number to continue to increase after the inspection is completed.”
McDonald said residents can call 651-266-6400 or email parkscustomerservice@ci.stpaul.mn.us to report downed branches and trees, but the city will prioritize safety hazards and major damages that will potentially impact roads and sidewalks.
Minneapolis said Saturday in a release that city crews will be out treating hills and slippery spots as needed, and will focus on arterial routes.
“The City does not plan to declare a snow emergency,” the release said, “given the warmer temps in the forecast.”
As of 3:50 p.m., Xcel Energy reported nearly 7,600 customers were still impacted by outages, mostly in the Twin Cities region. That’s down from more than 215,000 outages from the storm on Saturday. Western Wisconsin outages neared about 90 outages as of Sunday afternoon, down from more than 8,500 reported on Saturday morning.
Xcel spokesperson Trisha Duncan said the April Fool’s storm posed a bigger challenge than usual for the power company.
“The heavy wet snow, the winds, a lot of the trees were knocked down which impacted our infrastructure, and a lot of snow made it hard for us to access some of the infrastructure,” Duncan said. “So the magnitude of the storm is larger than what we normally do experience, that's for certain.”
Duncan expects that the majority will have power back on by Sunday evening, but about 3,000 customers could be waiting until late afternoon Monday. She added the majority of customers who still won't have power until Monday are in the eastern Twin Cities area.
Xcel partnered with the American Red Cross to open a heated shelter for customers who still don't have power. The shelter is in Woodbury at the King of Kings Lutheran Church.
Heavy snow caused a roof on the Browerville school gymnasium to partially collapse on Saturday. After an emergency meeting by the school board, the school decided to begin demolishing the gym roof on Sunday.
In a post shared by Independent News Herald in Clarissa, Minn., school superintendent Scott Vedbraaten said the high school gym and some adjoining classrooms will be closed for safety reasons, but the rest of the school building remains safe.
“Therefore, we believe at this time, students should report to school on Monday as usual,” Vedbraaten said in the post.