Over 74,800 without power following early morning severe storms
UPDATE: As of 6:00 AM this morning, Xcel Energy is reporting about 38,000 customers still without power and about 870 reported outages across the Twin Cities region. Crews continue to assess the damage from the storms early this morning as they are work to restore power across the Metro.
ORIGINAL STORY: According to Xcel Energy, as of 2:00 AM, over 74,800 customers and 793 outages are being reported across the Twin Cities Metro following severe storms around Midnight on Wednesday, August 3, 2022. Just after 11:50 PM on August 2nd, the National Weather Service Twin Cities issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the Metro for winds up to 60 MPH and up to penny-sized hail being possible.
The ASOS at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport reached a peak measured gust of 62 MPH, the National Weather Service office in Chanhassen measured a peak gust of 55 mph, and a MnDOT weather station near Red Wing measured a peak gust of 62 MPH.
Several reports are coming in across the Metro of tree damage and power lines being knocked down following the storms, including across Uptown and Vadnais Heights. Below you will find a Tweet from Jake Heitman of some of the damage he came across early this morning.
If you are traveling early this morning, use caution, as you could come across downed power lines, tree branches, and trees as crews begin the process of restoring power across the Metro and clean up the damage. If you do happen to come across downed power lines, do not drive over them and stay away. Call 911 to report the down powerlines. If you come across a downed tree or tree branches, first make sure they are not across any power lines. If it is across the power lines, immediately call 911 to report it. If they are not blocking the road, or on the power lines, you can call the local non-emergency number for your city. With the power out across several areas, remember to treat stop lights that are out as 4-way stops and proceed with caution.
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