Downed Line Knocks Out Power for 1,000 Xcel Energy Customers

UPDATED: 8:20 a.m.

Power should be restored to all customers, according to Xcel Energy.

UPDATED: 11:30 p.m. Wednesday

About 600 customers are without power as of 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. Xcel Energy estimates power should be restored to those customers by 5:40 a.m. Thursday.

UPDATED: 10:55 p.m.

Power has been restored to about 370 customers, according to Xcel. There are still 601 customers without power.

UPDATED: 10 p.m.

After hours of strong wind on Wednesday, a large limb near the intersection of Fifth Street East and Prairie Street snapped and fell on a main transmission line, knocking out power for nearly 1,000 Xcel Energy customers.

Xcel has crews on the scene to repair the line. Prairie Street is barricaded at Fourth Street East and Seventh Street East.

Outages are mostly scattered throughout the east and north neighborhoods near downtown.

Power is expected to be up by 11 p.m., according to Xcel Energy.

 Gerry Franek said a small fire burned out as firefighters arrived to the scene late Wednesday night.

Heavy rain, damaging winds and large hail are all possible late Wednesday and early into Thursday morning.

According to the National Weather Service:

SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL INCREASE IN COVERAGE THIS AFTERNOON ACROSS WESTERN MINNESOTA AND MOVE EASTWARD AND OVERNIGHT. A FEW SEVERE STORMS MAY DEVELOP EARLY ON...BEFORE THE STORMS TRANSITION INTO HEAVY RAIN PRODUCERS. THE THREAT FOR TORNADOES IS LOW...BUT LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS ARE POSSIBLE. HOWEVER...THE MAIN HAZARD IS EXPECTED TO BE HEAVY RAINFALL WHICH COULD LEAD TO FLOODING.

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Nearly 1,000 Xcel Energy customers in Northfield are without power Wednesday night.

The majority—952 customers—are near the downtown area around the intersection of Woodley Street and Division Street, according to an outage map.

Xcel expects to have the power back up for those customers before 11 p.m.

It's unknown what knocked the power out, though strong winds could be one culprit.

Heavy rain, damaging winds and large hail are all possible tonight and early into the morning.

According to the National Weather Service:

SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL INCREASE IN COVERAGE THIS AFTERNOON ACROSS WESTERN MINNESOTA AND MOVE EASTWARD AND OVERNIGHT. A FEW SEVERE STORMS MAY DEVELOP EARLY ON...BEFORE THE STORMS TRANSITION INTO HEAVY RAIN PRODUCERS. THE THREAT FOR TORNADOES IS LOW...BUT LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS ARE POSSIBLE. HOWEVER...THE MAIN HAZARD IS EXPECTED TO BE HEAVY RAINFALL WHICH COULD LEAD TO FLOODING.

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