Work continues on storm cleanup as some residents enter third day without electricity

Thousands of households in the Twin Cities metro remain without power as utility crews continue the recovery from Saturday night's storms.

The Xcel Energy outage map shows that there are a little over 5,300 customers still without power, though Xcel has cautioned that its outage map may be showing a higher number of remaining outages than is accurate.

The company had warned on Sunday that it could be Tuesday morning before all repairs were completed.

At its height on Saturday evening, around 170,000 customers were left without power as the Twin Cities metro was hit by severe storms that included strong straight-line winds.

In an update Monday evening, Xcel said it had restored power to 90% of customers impacted by the storm, with the remaining outages predominantly affecting the western Twin Cities metro, which was hit by large hail in addition to high winds.

"Customers who remain without power should check for damage to their mast, which is the electric service connection to their home. If the mast is damaged, a licensed electrician must make repairs and it must be inspected before service can be restored," the utility said.