By
The Associated Press
Damaging wind gusts eased across the upper Midwest yesterday in the aftermath of a storm that ripped down power lines and overturned tractor-trailer rigs, but flood preparations were underway as rivers started rising out of their banks.
Most power had been restored yesterday in hard-hit Wisconsin, where the wind had blacked out some 33,000 home and business customers on Saturday.
Fewer than 500 customers were still in the dark yesterday morning, utility representatives said.
"Some of these are kind of messy. There's some trees and power lines that are pretty knotted up," said Chris Schoenherr, spokesman for Alliant Energy Corp.
One woman was killed outside Chicago when the wind blew a tree onto her car, police reported.
Wind gusted to as high as 79 mph in parts of the Midwest on Saturday. Overturned tractor-trailer rigs blocked major highways in parts of Iowa and Wisconsin.
The storm also produced locally heavy rain that combined with melting snow to cause flooding.
About 30 members of the Minnesota National Guard were sent to help with sandbagging and other flood preparations at Breckenridge, where the Otter Tail and Bois de Sioux rivers combine to form the north-flowing Red River.
The rivers were expected to crest Tuesday at Breckenridge, and a few families had already left their homes in Doran, a small town just outside the city.
"We're pretty concerned because this is just starting, and there's a lot of water out there," said Dana Sims, whose family decided to stay in Doran to fight for their home. Volunteers helped the Sims encircle their home with sandbags.
Farther north along the Red River, Fargo, N.D., Mayor Bruce Furness declared an emergency Saturday, authorizing the Corps of Engineers to start building emergency dikes. The Red River was forecast to crest there by the end of the week.
At Grand Forks, N.D., the Red River is expected to crest at around 44 feet on April 18 or 19. In 1997, the river peaked at more than 54 feet and inundated the city.
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.
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.
In Minnesota, Xcel Energy said about 12,000 customers lost power for a time Saturday in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. An estimated 5,000 customers were blacked out in Iowa and some 2,000 went off line in eastern Nebraska, utility officials said.
The wind also piled up ice breaking up in the spring thaw on some lakes, pushing slabs up to 65 feet into yards along Wisconsin's Lake Winnebago. One street had a pile of ice 30 feet high and several blocks long.
