Cleanup Begins After Severe Storms Thursday

Originally published at 5:18 a.m. May 13th, 2022

Updated 11:33 a.m. May 13th, 2022

(KNSI) — Residents all around central Minnesota are cleaning up Friday after another day of wicked weather.

Two-inch hail, winds, and torrential rains were reported Thursday afternoon. KNSI received numerous reports of road flooding, including Pinecone Road in Sartell, Veterans Drive near 33rd Avenue North, and 9th/10th Avenue under Highway 23 near downtown St. Cloud. Between Wednesday and Thursday, the St. Cloud area received at least 3.64″ of rain.

The National Weather Service says there were 55 preliminary reports of significant wind gusts of over 75 miles an hour on Thursday. That is the day with the second most preliminary hurricane-force wind gusts since 2004. The National Weather Service recorded preliminary wind gusts over 60 miles an hour around Clearwater, St. Cloud, Maple Lake, Belgrade, and Paynesville. Richmond and Willmar reported wind gusts over 70 miles an hour, and Forada recorded a peak wind gust of 87 miles an hour. A semi-truck was blown over on Highway 23 near Paynesville, and another was blown off the road on Highway 15 in Kingston Township. The driver, Kenneth Braniecki, 56, of Florissant, Missouri, was taken to the Meeker Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Interstate 94 was closed near Alexandria on Thursday night after numerous semis were blown off the road. Other photos on social media show grain silos knocked over and farm outbuildings destroyed around west-central Minnesota.

Multiple trees were reportedly uprooted in Meeker County and around the Sartell area. Trees and powerlines were also reported down in Rice and Pierz. Tree damage was also reported on the south side of St. Cloud. Roughly 4,000 people are without power as of Friday morning.

A trained spotter reported a funnel cloud three miles west of Veterans Drive and County Road 120.

One person was also killed Thursday after a grain bin, blown over by high winds, fell on them. No further immediate details were available, only that it happened about 20 miles south of Willmar.

That death marks the second in as many days as a meteorologist was killed in a crash on Interstate 90 Wednesday as they were following the storms in southern Minnesota. A group of four meteorologists in the car were hit by a semi as they were trying to avoid powerlines that had been blown down. A US Naval Academy Professor and doctor of meteorology also in that car was seriously injured.

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