Power Still Out after Weekend Storms

Eden Prairie, Minn. - Severe weather causing hail, heavy rain and flooding in southwest Minnesota made its way through the Twin Cities Saturday night. Numerous severe weather warnings were issued. No major damage was reported, but Xcel Energy says it's working to restore power to about 3800 customers in the Metro by Sunday night.

Xcel estimates 5,700 homes are without power in the west Metro, and less than 200 homes are without power in the east Metro.

The peak of outages happened Friday night, when Xcel says they had about 45,000 customers without power.  Xcel says we reached a peak outage of about 9,000 customers without power Saturday night into Sunday morning.

Xcel says Golden Valley and east St. Paul have the most outages, but says there are widespread outages throughout the Metro, and in many cases, crews are dealing with many of these jobs one house at a time.

If you've lost power, be sure to report it to your electric company.  If you've already reported the outage, you're asked to be patient.  Xcel has crews handling more than 450 individual jobs today.  They will respond to downed power lines and other problems that could affect people's safety.  Next, they'll work on whatever job will give the most power back to those without it.  Everything else is lower on the priority list.

If you're concerned you have a safety issue with power lines or an outage because of the storms, you're asked to call 9-1-1.

A low pressure system had been fueling severe weather this weekend, and FOX 9 Meteorologist Ian Leonard says it has finally pushed hot and humid air out of Minnesota. Cooler air moving is what caused the severe weather.

Tornado sirens blared from Shakopee to Stillwater. Some people reported seeing a funnel cloud, but the National Weather Service has not confirmed any tornadoes.

Lightning lit up the sky and strong winds blew down tree limbs and power lines. Lightning struck a home in Maple Grove and caused a house fire in Chaska, but no injuries were reported.

Both Friday and Saturday nights brought heavy rain, and some drivers were caught in flash floods on area highways, like 169 and I-494.  Hundreds of people in Blue Earth County are still assessing damage from Friday's heavy storm- Saturday's severe weather brought down power lines and slowing down the clean-up efforts.

FOX 9 Meteorologist Ian Leonard warns that even though the storms are long gone, you should keep an eye out for downed power lines and potential flooding. As we learned from Friday night's storms, excessive runoff from heavy rainfall will cause flooding of small creeks and streams, highways and underpasses, country roads and farmlands along the banks of creeks, streams and other low-lying areas.

There is small chance of rain on Sunday afternoon, but expect comfortable, sunny weather by Monday.