Even more storms leave behind even more debris

The second in a pair of nearly identical storms raced down the Interstate 94 corridor and into Wisconsin, leaving hundreds of trees uprooted and a few buildings destroyed in places where winds reached tornado-like fury, officials said Tuesday.

They disputed, however, some of the wilder claims that emerged soon after the late Monday storm, such as the 5-inch hail reported in Eden Prairie.

"That would be about the largest ever reported anywhere," said Lisa Schmit, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chanhassen.

Cities such as St. Paul and Eden Prairie that were still announcing arrangements to handle debris from Saturday's early morning storm were able to simply scoop in Monday night's as well.

Both storms packed winds of roughly 80 to 85 miles per hour in spots, with hailstones big enough to move cars under shelter.

Monday's was at its fiercest in the Brainerd area, where hundreds of trees were downed, and in west-central Wisconsin.

Brainerd radio station WWWI was knocked off the air, as power was cut off to the station's transmitter in south Brainerd. At the North Central Speedway, about 6 miles north of town, a two- story building housing 16 viewing booths and sky boxes was destroyed, and the wreckage ruined much of the grandstand below it.

A racing card scheduled for Tuesday night was canceled.

Trees sawed off roads

In Wisconsin, a home was destroyed and the roof of an airport hangar peeled off in New Richmond, according to reports to the Weather Service. Doors blew off a building in Durand, and power lines and street lights fell in Menomonie.

In the Twin Cities area, crews in many cities were out on the streets afterward, clearing branches and sawing apart whole trees so traffic could resume.

"We sawed four or five trees off of one main road," said Frank Stone, superintendent of public works in Andover. "Fortunately the worst came in our northeast area, which is sparsely populated."

There was at least one report of tennis-ball-size hail, but most hailstones reported by trained spotters were decidedly smaller than that, though large enough to startle homeowners when they struck windows and siding.

By the dinner hour Tuesday, Xcel Energy was reporting that nearly 12,000 customers were waiting for power to be restored, the vast majority of them in the west metro area.

The storm brought a lot of rain, but drought conditions still exist around the region, said meteorologist Schmit. "Normally you want a more saturating rainfall," she said. "A lot of this ran off. Still, a lot of areas got 1 to 3 inches, which definitely helps out quite a bit. We need more rain."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. David Peterson • 612-673-4440 • dapeterson@startribune.com