© accuweather
More than 100,000 homes were without power Sunday morning after storms lashed central Minnesota and western Wisconsin with heavy rains, hail and strong winds.
Xcel Energy reports that the fast-moving storm, which felled trees and power lines in communities throughout central Minnesota, initially affected 132,000 households, most of which were in the Twin Cites metro and St. Cloud areas.
The utility company says more than 500 people were dispatched Sunday to repair outages, adding that by mid-day 45,000 households had their power restored. Still,
around 88,000 households remain without power.By 9:30 p.m. Sunday, Xcel reported nearly 131,000 customers had their power restored. Around 34,000 households were still without power as of Sunday night.
Xcel said some customers could be without power for multiple days.
The severe weather started overnight in the Dakotas before pushing east into central Minnesota,
dumping heavy rain and up to tennis-ball-sized hail. Wind gusts whipped up to 70 mph.
Comment: Just over a week ago a deadly thunderstorm hit Russia's Sverdlovsk region. At the end of May 16 people died in Moscow, with at least another hundred injured, after the worst storm to hit the city in living memory, and probably the worst since the 19th century.