Thousands remain without power across Minnesota in wake of weekend storms
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Thousands of Minnesota homes and businesses remained without power Monday, more than a day after severe storms knocked down trees and power lines from Moorhead to the Twin Cities.
Utility crews headed back out to keep working on repairs, though another round of storms affecting parts of the state on Monday morning complicated those efforts.
The storms late Saturday and early Sunday packed winds of more than 60 mph along with large hail as they moved southeast across the state. The winds downed trees and power lines from Pelican Rapids to the St. Cloud area to the Twin Cities. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Xcel Energy was reporting more than 17,000 of its Minnesota customers remained without power Monday afternoon — down from more than 27,000 earlier in the day, and down from more than 70,000 reported early Sunday.
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In a Sunday evening update, the utility said it was “making significant progress restoring power” with about 1,250 employees working to make repairs. The greatest number of outages were in the western Twin Cities metro area.
“Xcel Energy anticipates restoring most customers’ power by Monday night, though some work will continue into Tuesday,” the utility said.
Xcel also said that customers who still don’t have power should check for damage to their home’s “mast” — the electrical connection from the service line to the home. If it’s damaged, it will need to be repaired by a licensed electrician before service can be restored.
The outages came as the Twin Cities recorded its first 90-degree reading of the summer on Sunday — meaning thousands of residents were left without fans or air conditioning in the sweltering heat. The heat and humidity also caused extra challenges for line workers.
Elsewhere in Minnesota, other utilities were working to repair smaller lingering outages from weekend storms. Lake Region Electric Cooperative reported several hundred customers without power early Monday in the Otter Tail County area. The utility said the weekend storms didn’t just knock down power lines but also completely snapped some power poles.
Another round of strong storms on Monday morning produced wind gusts in excess of 60 mph and large hail as they rolled across parts of west-central and southwest Minnesota.
The storms downed trees and power lines in Raymond, Prinsburg and Olivia, and dropped golf-ball-size hail at Prinsburg. The National Weather Service also received a report that strong winds knocked a semi off State Highway 29 south of Benson.