October snow knocks out power for thousands in Twin Cities metro
An October snow storm dropped around 8 inches of snow in parts of the Twin Cities metro on October 20, 2020. (FOX 9)
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Xcel Energy crews are working to restore power after heavy, wet snow knocked out power for thousands of customers in Minnesota.
According to Xcel Energy, about 8,000 customers in the Twin Cities metro were without power as of 9 p.m. Tuesday. At the peak, about 33,500 customers were impacted by the outage.
Hennepin County appeared to be the hardest hit by outages with about 9,000 customers still affected just before 10 p.m. All available Xcel Energy crews are working to restore power.
Tuesday's October snowstorm marked the second-largest October daily snowfall on record for Twin Cities, causing nearly 500 crashes statewide.
How to report an outage
Xcel Energy customers can report an outage in the following ways:
- Xcel Energy mobile app available on iOS and Android
- Online at xcelenergy.com/out
- Text ‘OUT’ to 98936 to report an outage, or text STAT to the same number to check the status of a power outage.
- Call 1-800-895-1999 and follow the prompts—the automated phone reporting system lets customers report outages in less than 60 seconds. Once the cause of the problem is identified, the system or an Xcel Energy representative will provide customers with an estimated restoration time.