Approximately 119,000 customers remained without power Tuesday morning after heavy storms battered Minnesota and the wider Midwest.
The majority of Minnesota’s outages were concentrated in Hennepin County, data collected by service tracker PowerOutage revealed, with about 57,000 customers affected. An additional 24,000 customers in Ramsey County were without power, as well as 20,000 in Washington County.
Other affected locales included Sherburne, Isanti, Chisago, Anoka, Carver, and Dakota counties.
Customers in neighboring Wisconsin also experienced outages, with PowerOutage reporting nearly 12,000 customers without power in the state Tuesday.
A 2021 view of the Minneapolis skyline in the early hours of the morning. Hennepin County was among the worst affected locales after heavy storms triggered power outages across the Midwestern state.
A 2021 view of the Minneapolis skyline in the early hours of the morning. Hennepin County was among the worst affected locales after heavy storms triggered power outages across the Midwestern state.
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
Parts of the state had been placed under severe thunderstorm watch by the National Weather Service (NWS), forecasting possible hail, lightning and gusts up to 75 miles per hour.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz urged residents of the state to make a plan to stay safe during Monday’s storms.
Affected locals took to social media to complain early Tuesday.
“How is it possible that the whole region’s power is out,” one user asked.
Another asked: “If power at work stays out for longer than 30 minutes, it means everyone gets to go home for the day, right?”
“Severe thunderstorms are causing power outages in the region. Our crews are working as quickly as possible to safely restore power,” said Xcel Energy, one company that provides services to the area.
The Ready Campaign, a public service campaign designed to educate and empower the American people to prepare for, respond to and mitigate emergencies and disasters, advises anyone at risk from strong storms to move from outdoors into a building or car with a roof, and avoid using devices connected to an electrical outlet.
The NWS defines severe thunderstorms as storms that are capable of producing hail that is an inch or larger or wind gusts over 58 mph.
It warns that thunderstorms may also produce tornadoes and dangerous lightning and heavy rain that can cause flash flooding.
Minnesota’s storms followed boiling temperatures in the region this week. Heat warnings and advisories had been issued by the NWS across Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma.
Scorching temperatures prompted local schools to shorten their schedules and some cities opened cooling centers to offer reprieve from oppressive heats.
Tuesday’s outages echo similar events that occurred in the Midwest earlier this month.
Over 300,000 customers were affected by outages in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri on August 1 following strong thunderstorms across the region.
In Nebraska’s Saunders County, PowerOutage recorded a 99.81 percent outage around 03:28 a.m. local time.
The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) issued an emergency alert at the time warning of “destructive” 80 mph winds.
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Publish date : 2024-08-27 04:40:00
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