Midwest storm knocks out power, floods homes

April 7, 2001 Web posted at: 5:59 PM EDT (2159 GMT)

OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) -- Wind up to 79 mph ripped across the upper Midwest on Saturday, overturning tractor-trailer rigs, knocking out power and peeling a 2-ton ribbon of copper sheet off the roof of Nebraska's Capitol.

Locally heavy rain combined with melting snow to flood homes, roads and basements in South Dakota and Minnesota; flood warnings were in effect in North Dakota.

Wind gusts measured at nearly 65 mph ripped a long section of original copper roofing off part of Nebraska's Capitol in Lincoln, said Mike Rindone, chief architect and project manager for the Capitol building's restoration project.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

About a ton of the sheet remained atop the building, but the other half draped over the side, held in place by scaffolding used in the restoration, Rindone said.

Elsewhere in Lincoln, a garage fire spread to two apartment buildings and eight families had to be evacuated. And in Omaha, the wind damaged a church steeple, homes and businesses. Power outages were reported throughout the eastern half of Nebraska.

The wind overturned tractor-trailer rigs in parts of Minnesota and Iowa, and Xcel Energy in Minnesota said about 12,000 customers lost power in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. A gust of 79 mph was measured at Fairmont, Minnesota., near the Iowa state line. The wind also knocked out power in parts of Wisconsin, damaged one house and destroyeertown, and the city opened emergency shelters, readied 56,000 sandbags and closed valves to prevent river water from flowing back through storm sewers.

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2001

Answers

Ah, spring!

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2001

Gusts reach 83 mph in Iowa High winds disrupt power, traffic By MICHAEL COREY Register Staff Writer 04/08/2001 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- A fierce wind blew sand in the face of police officers, semitrailer truck drivers and everyone else who went outside on Saturday.

Sporadic power outages disabled traffic lights around Des Moines, and drivers in western Iowa were blown off the road. Trees, signs and power lines were downed across the state.

Wind speeds generally ranged from 30 to 45 mph in Iowa. More intense gusts were recorded in the northwest part of the state, with the strongest unofficially reported at 83 mph in Wesley, said Andy Kula, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Johnston.

The Des Moines police station was without power for part of the day, said Sgt. Scott Rounds. Two power poles behind the station fell about 11:30 a.m. and a transformer fell on a police vehicle. Emergency generators kept dispatchers working and lights in the City Jail on, but many computers were not working. Power was not expected to be restored until late Saturday.

Des Moines police said at least 15 traffic lights were not working properly on Saturday. Randy Strait, a driver for Pizza Hut on Southeast 14th Street, said the broken lights were an annoyance, but they were gradually being repaired.

"Now that the lights are working, it's no problem," Strait said.

MidAmerican Energy Co. spokesman Kevin Waetke said about 8,000 customers in Des Moines and surrounding areas were without power at noon. Seven local lines were affected, Waetke said. At 9 p.m., about 1,000 customers were without power and repairs involved individual homes.

"It's really a matter of going door to door to make repairs," he said.

About 10,000 Alliant Energy customers in Iowa were without power at 4 p.m., said Alliant Energy spokesman John Ruff.

""For every customer we get on as the storm system moves east, it knocks out another customer," Ruff said. "Our response time has been about an hour and a half to two hours."

Five semi-trailer trucks overturned along Interstate Highways 80 and 29, said Sgt. Rob Hansen of the Iowa State Patrol. No injuries were reported from the incidents.

A State Patrol dispatcher in Atlantic said she knew of seven wind- related accidents in the area.

National Weather Service forecasters issued a high wind warning for much of the state throughout the day.

A low pressure system that formed over Colorado and moved northeast caused the stormy winds, Kula said.

The wind was accompanied by rain in parts of northern Iowa, putting some areas at risk for minor flooding.

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2001

Pretty soggy here in New England, too.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/098/nation/Minnesota_Dakotas_pile_sand bag:.shtml

Minnesota, Dakotas pile sandbags against rising rivers

By Associated Press, 4/8/2001 21:17

National Guard soldiers helped pile sandbags Sunday as rivers fed by melting snow and rain rose quickly in Minnesota and the Dakotas.

The focus of attention Sunday was the Red River, which flows northward between North Dakota and Minnesota and caused devastating flooding four years ago in Grand Forks, N.D.

Guard soldiers helped with security, rescues and evacuations at Breckenridge, Minn., where the river was at 16 feet and expected to crest at 19 feet during the middle of the week. Flood stage is 10 feet but the city is protected by a system of dikes and pumps.

South of Breckenridge, guardsmen stacked sandbags at the tiny town of Dumont, as the Lake Traverse reservoir rose toward the town.

''What I am hearing is that the effort really saved the town,'' said National Guard Lt. Col. Denny Shields.

On the North Dakota side of the Red River, Fargo Mayor Bruce Furness put the city's flood-protection plans into high gear Sunday and said work would begin immediately on an earthen dike to keep the river out the downtown district.

The goal was to build the dike high enough to protect Fargo against 36 feet of water, the crest the National Weather Service forecast for Thursday or Friday. Flood stage is 17 feet and the river was at just over 27 feet Sunday night.

Grand Forks officials issued a new flood warning Sunday afternoon as the Red River rose past 36 feet there, up more than 4 feet since Saturday morning and on its way to a forecasted crest of 43 to 45 feet.

However, the city had already been shoring up its dike system, which protects to a river level of 50 feet, said city spokeswoman Christine Page Diers.

Grand Forks did not have that dike system during the devastating flood of 1997, when much of the city had to be evacuated and hundreds of homes were lost.

The Red River and others streams in the Upper Midwest were being filled by rapidly melting snow and heavy rain dumped by a storm that swept across the region Saturday.

Watertown, S.D., collected 2.27 inches of rain Saturday and about 250 families left their homes as a precaution against high water on the Big Sioux River. They were allowed back Sunday morning as the river started receding. National Guard members also had been sent to help out there.

Other rivers in eastern South Dakota were still rising, including the James River, which was 6 feet over flood stage at Huron. New dikes were expected to spare the town from a repeat of its 1997 flooding.

-- Anonymous, April 09, 2001