Power may not be fully restored after snowstorm until Monday, Xcel says
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The April Fools' Day blizzard dropped heavy, wet snow, damaging power lines and leaving thousands without electricity. Xcel Energy said approximately 280,000 customers across Minnesota and Wisconsin were impacted by the storm.
As of 11:20 p.m. Sunday, about 640 customers in the Twin Cities were still without power.
"I woke up this morning and the temperature in my house was 58 degrees. Normally, it's 68 degrees," St. Paul resident Doug Strandquest said.
The outage in Strandquest's neighborhood forced some businesses, including Trader Joe's, to close on Saturday.
"Our neighbor here has an iguana so she was scrambling trying to find something to run her heat lamp, the poor thing," Steve Kelso said.
Steve Kelso also lost power. He says he has been warming up in his truck as the temperature inside his home drops.
"This morning we just drove around to stay warm, check out the neighborhood, see if there's any damage. We got some food. There's not much you can do in the house without the power, it's getting cold in there," he said.
A few doors down from Kelso, Scott Slagle is also in the dark. He's unable to use his breathing machine to sleep.
"I really feel for the people that do have issues with medical devices, that's really sad, I mean if mine was a serious case, what do you do? I guess go to a hospital or hotel," he said.
With nearly 1,000 workers from 10 different states on the job, Xcel says they expect 98% of those outages to be fixed by Sunday night, but some may be waiting until Monday night. As utility crews continue to work to restore power, Xcel reminds people to stay away from down power lines.
"When it comes to restoring power, top priority is given to situations that threaten public safety, such as live downed wires. Repair priority is based on what will restore power to the largest number of customers most quickly, such as transmission lines or feeder lines that serve large amounts of customers," the utility company said.
The American Red Cross is opening an overnight shelter at King of Kings Lutheran Church in Woodbury for those who need it.