Severe thunderstorms swept across Minnesota late Tuesday night and into early Wednesday morning, producing violent wind gusts, heavy rain, lightning and widespread damage that left more than 75,000 customers without power statewide. The storms, which developed over South Dakota before racing eastward across Minnesota, delivered some of the most damaging gusts the region has seen in years.
The highest wind speeds recorded came from western Minnesota, where Marietta reported gusts of 83 mph, Madison saw 78 mph winds, Chokio recorded 72 mph and Benson hit 69 mph. Farther east, Alexandria saw 64 mph gusts, St. Cloud recorded 51 mph and Buffalo hit 49 mph. The ferocious winds brought down trees and power lines across the metro area, with the heaviest concentration of outages in the eastern Twin Cities.
As of 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, more than 54,000 Xcel Energy customers statewide were without power, with Ramsey County alone accounting for more than 30,000 of those outages. When all utility providers are included, the total number of affected customers statewide climbed past 74,000, with significant outages also reported in Wright, Douglas, Stearns and Cass counties.
Damage across the Twin Cities
Storm damage was reported across multiple neighborhoods in Minneapolis and St. Paul. In St. Paul’s Mac-Groveland neighborhood, a large tree broke off at its base on West James Avenue and Wheeler Street, landing in the road and narrowly missing a parked pickup truck. In Minneapolis’s Como neighborhood, a tree fell onto a house near Talmage and 22nd Avenues, landing on the bedroom and taking down power lines in the process. The homeowner told reporters she had fortunately not been asleep at the time of the collapse. Fire crews responded to secure the power lines and assist the resident…