Story perspectives

Minnesota Storms Leave 75,000 Powerless, Train Derails

6/11/2026

Summary

Story summary

Meteorologists warned that a second weather outbreak could strike eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin later Wednesday, bringing large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes.
Xcel Energy said that by 3:30 p.m. Wednesday about 6,500 Minnesota customers lacked power while the storms had left over 75,000 without electricity early Thursday.
Hoffman officials opened City Hall as a shelter and worked with the Red Cross after a wind-driven train derailment and a community-wide outage.

History

Historical Context

In March 1993 the Storm of the Century formed over the Gulf of Mexico and, by March 15, had knocked out electricity to more than 10 million U.S. households, causing $5.5 billion in damage. The unprecedented outages exposed the fragility of the Midwestern grid, prompting utilities such as Xcel Energy in Minnesota to accelerate modernization efforts.

1 of 2

Story summary

Meteorologists warned that a second weather outbreak could strike eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin later Wednesday, bringing large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes.
Xcel Energy said that by 3:30 p.m. Wednesday about 6,500 Minnesota customers lacked power while the storms had left over 75,000 without electricity early Thursday.
Hoffman officials opened City Hall as a shelter and worked with the Red Cross after a wind-driven train derailment and a community-wide outage.

1 / 2