Granite Falls and Montevideo are cleaning up after severe thunderstorms pelted that area Saturday night. Granite Falls Mayor Dave Smiglewski says, “We didn’t get a tremendous amount of rain… and we didn’t get a lot of hail, but we had extremely high winds,” with gusts clocked at 70- to 85-miles-an-hour. Smiglewski says the entire town was without power until last night and restoration is still under way in the eastern half. There are no reported injuries from the storm.
Smiglewski says the storm damaged a major power line that feeds the eastern part of Granite Falls and an industrial park. “Several poles that were snapped off 12, 15 feet above the ground. Trees down all over the place and it’s blocking Twin Cities and Western Railroad,” he says. A warehouse in the industrial park was destroyed and others damaged. Three hangars at the airport and some planes were destroyed.