Wind Storm Rips Through New Brighton
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The storms that moved through the metro area Monday night were quick, but they caused a lot of damage in some areas.
In New Brighton, winds up to 50 miles per hour blew through.
Trees were uprooted, leaving a large hole in the ground.
The public works director told WCCO he's never seen anything like this in his career here.
The New Brighton area was hit by a very quick wind storm, with winds reaching 50 miles per hour. When it was over, the people living here on Long Lake looked outside to see a pretty unusual sight.
Steve Danger was having a family dinner when a pop up wind storm came howling.
"I don't think I've seen winds come through like that in years. Couldn't even see past the deck. The rain was just so intense," Danger said.
The storm caused significant damage.
Trees were down blocking roads, but nothing compared to what Danger saw out his window.
"It pulled up the five foot diameter ring and basically opened that all up, opened the lake up," he said.
The top of a manhole leading to a sanitary city sewer pipe had been ripped off, as a strip of land had been torn away by uprooted trees.
"This is an unusual situation," Director of Public Works, Grant Wyffels, said.
Wyffels says the major concern was the Long Lake water pouring into the pipe.
"They're sanding around the layer of the pipe and then they'll put a layer around that. And we'll leave it for the night and hopefully remains stable," Wyffels said.
Firefighters and public works both worked tirelessly to block off the hole.
After 23 years of living on the property, Danger's family will have a different view for their family dinners.
"Never anything like this. This is pretty bizarre," Danger said.
Public works says there's still a lot of work left to do.
The immediate concern was to block off the hole. They'll be meeting with the Metropolitan Council Environmental Service Tuesday to come up with a more permanent clean-up process.