Rochester, MN (KROC AM News)  - Rochester Public Utilities called in every available line worker Tuesday night to help restore power to the hundreds of customers who lost service during the storm that hit the city around 9 p.m.

RPU says the strong winds blew down trees and power poles, especially along Highway 63 in the south part of the city. Eleven poles were knocked down along St. Bridgets Road in that area.There were also numerous outages in the Bamber Valley and Mayowood areas.

RPU says more than 2,700 customers were affected by the outages. That number had been lowered to around 250 as of 6 a.m.

More than 250,000 Xcel Energy customers lost power during the two waves of storms that hit the central part of the state and the Twin Cities Tuesday. As of 6 a.m. Wednesday, 77,000 were still without service. Most were in the Twin Cities area.  

The second round of stormy weather struck Tuesday night and produced winds in excess of 70 mph, large hail, lightning and heavy rain.

The weather also led to a nearly three hour delay in the start of the Twins game at Target Field. The game ended at 1 a.m. Wednesday.

 

 

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