Aug 19, 2009 11:11 pm US/Central
Mpls. Storm Leaves Residents To Deal With Damage
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
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Pictures of damage in the 39th and Portland Avenue area.
Billy Briggs
The tornado warnings that covered the metro on Wednesday evening are now gone. But that sudden storm has left neighbors with one big clean up project.
Patrick Moore was not at home when the storm hit Wednesday afternoon, but when he did get home he didn't like what he saw.
"When I turned on the street going north on Park Avenue it was like a war zone. There were trees everywhere, it was a pretty tough deal," said Moore.
For several blocks along Park Avenue in south Minneapolis you can find homeowners who lucked out, and others that weren't so lucky.
"It was just raining and all of a sudden you heard just a whirlwind and all I told the kids was get out, just get out. And we got out and this is what we run into," said Mabel Patterson.
Patterson and her grandkids made it through the storm safely only to step outside afterwards and find a tree resting on her roof. It caused significant water damage to her home, but Patterson's just happy everyone made it out okay.
"We are blessed. Because I look around us and realize how blessed we are," said Patterson.
There were no serious injuries to report in the neighborhood, and now the focus is on clean-up.
About every third home seemed to have a tree, or in some cases trees, to deal with.
Chainsaws went to work Wednesday afternoon, and logs and branches piled up along the street.
"We've had quite a few storms come through here in the last month or so but this one is pretty big," said Richard Bartels of Kiser Construction. His company specializes in storm repair.
Clean-up crews think it will be several days before things are back to normal. That is plenty of time for homeowners here to figure out if they fall into the lucky or unlucky category.
"It penetrated the roof but only on the eave so we didn't have any water go into the house. Like I said, I think we dodged a major bullet," said Moore.
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Slideshow: Storm Damage Across The Twin Cities, Wis. 
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