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Thousands Still Without Power After Severe Weather

July 6, 2016 / 9:30 PM CDT / CBS Minnesota

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Xcel Energy crews have been assessing damage and restoring power since late Tuesday night, after storms packing 70-mile-an-hour winds hit the area.

More than 250,000 people were without power at the peak of the outages. About 38,000 are still without power as of early Wednesday evening, with about 32,000 of those cases in the Twin Cities' west metro.

Xcel Energy said in a statement Wednesday night that they expect crews to restore power to most of northwestern Minnesota by Thursday night, and southeastern Minnesota by Friday night.

But with more severe weather expected for Thursday, Xcel says more delays could occur.

The storms tore down trees and power lines, ripped apart buildings and left a trail of debris through many neighborhoods. The damage extends into western Wisconsin, where strong winds tore through a farm, destroying a barn.

Rodney Hendrickson ended up in a dangerous situation during the storm. The truck driver was carrying a load in Hanover.

"I came upon these wires, so I stopped," Hendrickson said. "A power line fell on top of the cab, and I didn't know what fell because it was a loud bang, because it was raining so hard I didn't know what it was."

He knew better than to get out of the cab of his truck.

"It's best to sit there because you don't know if the power lines are live or not, so best to sit in the truck, doesn't matter how long it takes," Hendrickson said.

And that is where he stayed for nearly seven hours.

"Sit there and wait [laughs]! That's about it," he said.

Hendrickson snapped a few pictures of the downed lines from inside. He was rescued close to midnight. His truck was freed from the lines Wednesday afternoon.

"I heard a crash. I didn't actually see that come down," 76-year-old Arvin Borgmann said.

Enough storms have whipped through Borgmann's Corcoran neighborhood for him to know it would leave a mess, and knock out power.

"There's a 167-acre golf course over there that just gets, the wind winds up on it and just lets me have it," Borgmann said.

Down the road, high winds knocked down two high-voltage power lines, which made 15 miles of roadway impassable. Crews cut power lines, cleared all the roads and worked to restore power.

That work paid off for Borgmann.

"Got lights!" Borgmann said. "You brought me good luck [laughs]!"

St. Anthony was also hit hard. Sixteen-year-old Andy Schmidt says he watched as everything went dark at about 8 p.m. He believes a tree in his neighbor's yard knocked power out to the entire block.

"The branches just came off the tree from the high winds, and they came directly onto the wires," said resident Lyle Payette.

Gallery: Severe Weather On July 5, 2016

Schmidt has been through this before.

"The last few summers it's happened about once a summer, we've had a power outage for a day or so or 12 hours," Schmidt said.

His dad bought a generator, which is not only a lifeline to his home but it is also powering those around him.

"Our generator is supplying power to our house, and then to two neighbors next door for their fridge and freezer and lights," Schmidt said.

Others who are not so fortunate and are counting on Xcel Energy crews -- and those who contract with them -- to get the power back on.

"It's simple math," said of Xcel Energy's Troy Browen. "It's how many outages, jobs do we have, and then how many crews do we have."

Xcel says finding crews to help has been tough. With more storms in the forecast, utility crews are in high demand.

"A lot of our mutual-aid partners and contract partners are actually holding to protect their customers much like we would," Browen said. "We're beating the bushes as hard as we can to get crews to come in and help the customers."

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