Transcripts

TOM MEERSMAN: Behind me, there's a burglar alarm going off at a motorcycle shop. And there's a lot of shops along Lake Street that have burglar alarms going off now, because major damage has come to them through the large plate windows, that lie broken and strewn across Lake Street all the way, especially in the area between Lake Calhoun and Nicollet Avenue.

I just finished taking a drive down Lake Street over that area. Some of the intersections have traffic lights working, many do not. A great deal of car and truck traffic around in the area right now also. And there are volunteers. On many of the side streets, there are downed trees. And the volunteers are using flashlights to guide people around through alleyways and down other streets that are not blocked by boughs and by trees.

About a block from here, between 28th and 29th on Lyndale, there is an entire tree, which is blocking traffic in both directions, north and south on Lyndale. All traffic is being routed around that area. There are fire rigs there, and there are fire rigs a couple of blocks from here on Dupont and Lake, where evidently there was a lightning caused fire, and traffic is being routed around all of these areas.

Across the street, there is a tire shop or just around the corner from here, there's a tire shop. And as I passed it, I saw three or four employees of that institution shoveling giant chunks of plate glass with snow shovels, trying to get it off the sidewalks, out of the streets, and trying to get some order, trying to get things picked up.