"We are ready for spring": Many metro area trees bear brunt of early spring dose of snow
MINNEAPOLIS -- After last week's snow and ice storm, clean-up continues across the Twin Cities.
Xcel said about 280,000 customers across Minnesota and Wisconsin were impacted. While power has been restored to most of them, homeowners are still dealing with downed trees and branches.
"Two doors down from us there was a huge branch in our neighbor's yard," said Sue Kloker. "It just barely missed a car and apparently there was another one nearby."
In Minneapolis, you don't have to go very far to find the aftermath of a spring snowstorm. Mother Nature's version of April Fool's Day, and neighborhood trees were the brunt of the joke.
"Ice buildup. That will help to take stuff down pretty easily as well," said Ben Schmidt.
Schmidt works for JR Utilities in St. Cloud. They've been busy doing upgrades and repairing cable lines in Minneapolis, that were impacted by the storm. He likes the work, but he's done with winter.
"Too long. Too long, yeah. We are ready for spring," said Schmidt.
There were plenty of close calls too. In Richfield, near Wentworth Avenue and 75th Street, a tree fell and barely missed Erica Briesch's house.
"It sounded like something was about to come through my house. It was really scary," said Briesch. "It just really took a crash."
Briesch's tree brushed by her home and took out a bench along with several branches from another tree.
"I got really lucky there. My neighbor came over the next day. He came and took a look at it. He's like, I got really lucky on where it fell and how it fell," said Briesch.
It's been a tough winter for trees, and the latest round of heavy, wet snow seemed to put an exclamation point on the season.
"One of my wonderful neighbors has volunteered to clean this up because they want the firewood. I'm like, be my guest. Because I don't want any part of it at this point," said Briesch.
Minneapolis says it will likely take another day or two before all the downed trees and branches are removed from city property.
