In a press release today Xcel Energy stated the following:

"Xcel Energy crews worked overnight to assess damage and begin the lengthy process of repairing damage to the power grid, after a major line of thunderstorms hit Minnesota on Tuesday evening, producing winds in excess of 70 mph, torrential rains, lightning and heavy rain. 

"More than 250,000 customers were impacted by the storms since it began. As of this morning, crews have been able to restore power to about 173,000 customers, with about 77,000 customers currently without service. Of the 77,000 customers currently without power, about 66,000 are in the metro area (36,000 in the west metro and 30,000 in the east metro), 5,000 are in southeast Minnesota (Mankato, Red Wing, Faribault) and 4,000 are in the Monticello/St. Michael area. There are about 2,000 Wisconsin customers also without service.

"Xcel Energy is doing all that it can to make the needed repairs and restore power as quickly as is possible. Due to the extensive damage to the power grid, we expect that outages from this storm will take considerable time to repair and many customers will experience an extended, multiple day outage.  

"We’ve called in additional crews and are engaging contractors and mutual aid crews to assist in the repair and restoration process. We anticipate having more than 1,000 Xcel Energy, contract and mutual aid employees working on the customer outages.

"We expect to have a more complete damage assessment later this morning, and will be able to provide more information on estimated restoration times."

Customers can contact Xcel Energy at (800) 895-1999, but due to a high volume of calls, there may be a longer-than-normal wait time to speak with a customer service agent.

Power lines on blue sky.
Tomasz Wyszoamirski
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