Thousands still without power after strong winds, downed trees hit Twin Cities

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    Timeline of severe storms on WednesdayTimeline of severe storms on Wednesday

UPDATE: As of 5:30 p.m., many people had their power restored, but about 5,140 Xcel customers in Minnesota and Wisconsin were still without power according to the company’s outage map.

As of 2 p.m., roughly 16,000 people across Minnesota and western Wisconsin were still without power, according to Xcel Energy.

Strong winds, rain and lightning knocked down trees and power lines across the metro, leaving over 75,000 people without power in Minnesota on Wednesday morning.

Our 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS team captured trees down in multiple places across the Twin Cities including on West James Avenue and Wheeler Street in St. Paul’s Mac-Groveland neighborhood.

RELATED: Forecast First Alert: Timing out rounds of severe storms

The tree was blocking the road after breaking off at the base and just missed hitting a red pickup truck when it fell.

In the Como neighborhood in Minneapolis, a tree fell on top of a house near Talmage and 22nd Avenues. It also fell on some power lines but did not start a fire.

Fire crews responded to secure the power lines and get the homeowner out of her house, since the tree fell on her bedroom and the front door, she told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.

The woman went on to say that she was shutting the windows and making sure the doors were shut when it happened.

Trees and branches also knocked down power lines across the metro. Most of the outages were in the eastern Twin Cities, according to Xcel Energy.

Xcel Energy said it had crews in place before the storms because it expected damaging winds. A spokesperson also said that about 275 crews are in the field now to safely restore power as quickly as possible, with additional teams slated to join later.

As of Wednesday at 11 a.m., just under 30,000 people are still without power in Minnesota and 12,000 of those are in Ramsey County.

The post Thousands still without power after strong winds, downed trees hit Twin Cities first appeared on KSTP.com 5 Eyewitness News.