Photos show downed Twin Cities trees after overnight storms, large hail in other parts of Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS – Strong winds tested the strength of trees across the Twin Cities metro area overnight, and some parts of the state saw monstrous hail stones as severe storms rolled through the region.
Xcel Energy says more than 1,200 crew members were out working Sunday to restore electricity to about 135,000 customers the storm impacted.
"We'll resume in the morning [on Monday] with full crews and a big crowd out there," said John Marshall, Xcel Energy's regional vice president. "Our goal is to get all our customers restored no later than the end of Monday."
Multiple residents of Monticello reported seeing large hail late Saturday. Some of the photos shared with WCCO showed hail stones roughly the size of baseballs, including a shot from Brian Anderson, who captured one hailstone measuring about 4 inches in diameter.
Other viewers sent similar shots of the hail and subsequent damage. Davin Krouse shared images of the hailstones he saw in the Monticello area, along with a shot of the damage done to a car windshield.
Garrick Oschwald was able to store some of the baseball-sized hail that fell, in the freezer of his home in Monticello.
"When the first hail stones started, I thought glass was breaking in the house, like with the windows," said Oschwald.
Hail that left its mark on his mother's nearby camper, and in the ground.
Right next door at Jenna Kulberg's house, her 8-year-old daughter Nora Kulberg showed off some hailstone souvenirs.
"It sounded like giant rocks," said Nora Kulberg.
Hail broke the glass on the family's electrical meter and left a major hole in their roof that went down to the wood.
"It's the biggest storm of this year so far, so we're doing our best to help people out," said Jeremiah Foy, a sales representative with Bold North Roofing and Contracting.
Every roof Foy said he has seen in Monticello and Big Lake has received some sort of damage.
"If you're going to file a claim don't sleep on it. The sooner you do it, the better chance you've got getting it approved," said Foy.
Meanwhile, in the Twin Cities metro area, storms rolled through overnight and brought occasionally high wind gusts.
WCCO crews found some trees down in south Minneapolis, along with St. Louis Park.
Downed trees were a common occurrence along Minnetonka Boulevard and Texas Avenue in St Louis Park. Homeowners WCCO spoke with said this is the worst storm damage they've seen in this area in decades.
Many homes and businesses in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis were without power most of Sunday.
At the restaurant, Picnic, the snap decision was made for a planned pop-up sushi dinner to become a sushi lunch.
"There's always crises," said Pete Nguyen, Picnic's general manager. "This was a unique one just because of the quality of the fish and the window of time that we had to sell it."
Nguyen says spreading the word on social media helped them sell out of sushi in two hours.
Uprooted trees made some of the roads in Linden Hills impassable.
Cleaning up trees and debris in the city's public spaces could be delayed with hundreds of city parks workers currently on strike.
"It's going to be weeks till they get all this cleaned up," said Jason Hendricks, an arborist with Minneapolis Parks. "Eighty-five percent of forestry members are on strike so they have five or six arborists working."
The parks worker union has a mediation session scheduled for Monday with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.