Transcripts

CATHY WURZER: Xcel Energy says there are now about 14,000 people without power this morning after a deadly tornado swept through North Minneapolis. It killed one person, injured 29. Reporter Brandt Williams is tracking the story for us this morning. He joins us live on the phone. Good morning, Brandt.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Good morning, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Describe where you are right now.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Right now, Cathy, I'm at the intersection of Penn Avenue North and 26th Avenue North. I'm across from a gas station, the Penn Gas Stop, which has been heavily damaged. The windows are boarded up. It looks like the wind blew out any signage that used to be on the gas station. And there is a bunch of debris still in the street around here. Trees down. It's kind of a depressing scene, I guess, if you live around here.

CATHY WURZER: Earlier this morning, I talked to Minneapolis Mayor Rybak. And he said that there are many streets that are still blocked by trees. Are you seeing that as well?

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Yeah. As a matter of fact, where I parked, there was a large tree blocking the road. And there was a bit of a tie up as cars would come around the block, and then they'd try to negotiate their way around the dead end. They'd have to turn around and come back. There was a school bus that was trying to back up, and people kept turning around the corner and blocking its path. And it just seems like there's going to be stories like that all day here around this part of town.

CATHY WURZER: So getting around is going to be tough. I know police have set up so-called exclusion zones. What's that?

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Well, they're trying to keep as much traffic out of the area as they can. And one word of caution they also mentioned is that if you're driving even nearby, maybe want to take a look at some of the sites around here, they say be careful because there's also debris in the roads, small metallic objects that are causing punctures of tires. So they said just-- number one, if you don't live in North Minneapolis, don't come around to the damaged areas. But if you have to drive anywhere near here, they say just be careful because there's all kinds of debris out there.

CATHY WURZER: Where do you-- I know you've toured this area here. And earlier this morning, you were talking about St. Anne's Catholic Church being maybe one of the spots that was hit hardest. If you had to have like a ground zero spot where the hardest damage, the most damage is, where is that in this area of North Minneapolis do you think?

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Well, it's got to be pretty close to here. I haven't gotten past this intersection right now. But everywhere I look, there are homes that have significant parts of the roofs either taken off or partially damaged, big, huge trees that have just been knocked over if not snapped in half at their trunk.

And I've just been talking to some of the other reporters this morning who have also been taking a walk around, and especially those who are familiar with North Minneapolis, which is an area that I've covered for close to 20 years. And I think the concern is going to be what's going to happen next to this part of town, because they already had enough problems around here after the foreclosure crisis and the amount of abandoned homes that were already in this side of town. This is just not going to help that at all.

CATHY WURZER: You're right. Some of the city's poorest neighborhoods are in North Minneapolis. Are they thinking rebuilding? Will the face of North Minneapolis change, do you think?

BRANDT WILLIAMS: I haven't heard anybody really address that point. I think they're still at the triage of assessing what kind of damage is out there. But I have to imagine that when you look at the type of problems that some of these neighborhoods have already had, as I mentioned, with the abandoned homes and just other forms of blight, they're going to have to figure out what to do with all these properties that are now damaged.

And some of these are going to have to come down, I have to imagine. Obviously, they're going to leave that up to the experts. But just from looking at some of these properties, you're going to have to have more demolition around here.

CATHY WURZER: And what are you expecting to happen today?

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Well, today, there's going to be, as you mentioned, I think Governor Dayton is going to come by and take a tour and take a look around. Officials are still going door to door and block by block to assess if there's been any gas leaks or more downed power lines, live wires, and any other problems they can find. And of course, they're going to try to keep people out of here who don't live around here.

CATHY WURZER: Brandt Williams, I appreciate your time here this morning. We'll talk to you later on.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: All right. Thanks, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: That's Brandt Williams, Minnesota Public Radio's Brandt Williams reporting live from an area of North Minneapolis, hit hard by a twister yesterday. By the way, teams of meteorologists will do an aerial survey of that particular part of Minneapolis and then over into the Fridley, Golden Valley area, and around Forest Lake to determine just the path of this storm and the wind speeds and that kind of thing. We expect to hear more about that later here on Minnesota Public Radio News.