GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – Parts of northeast Wisconsin are picking up the pieces after Tuesday’s severe weather.
The National Weather Service confirmed that four tornadoes touched down elsewhere in the state on Tuesday night, two in central Wisconsin and two in western Wisconsin.
Officials are still investigating exactly what hit the Kaukauna area, which is one of several local communities that was hit hard.
Our team coverage of the cleanup begins with Samantha Cavalli in Kaukauna, where emergency responders are documenting the damage.
Cleanup is underway in Kaukauna after last night’s severe storms which brought heavy rain and strong winds.
Residents in Kaukauna are assessing the damages. One of the large trees on the corner of Lawe and Division streets was uprooted and hit a home. Luckily no one was injured.
“All of a sudden I heard this big woosh and it was weird,” said Kerri Jansen of Kaukauna. “I took my dogs and me and my kids went downstairs.”
“I was letting my dog out and it started getting really windy and raining,” said Alyssa Janssen of Kaukauna. “I was a little freaked out so I ran into the house and closed all the windows and all of a sudden the tree fell and the power went out.”
Alyssa Janssen says multiple branches on a tree in her front yard fell and blocked the road. With the help of some friendly neighbors, Janssen says they were able to move the tree out of the way.
“Actually we’re the only one without power still because it fully detached from our house,” said Janssen. “The neighbors are letting us run our refrigerator off their power.”
“Right now the community emergency response team is out and they are taking pictures of the damage and we can see a pretty distinct line just cutting through the whole city,” said Andrea Fencl, the marketing and communications manager for the City of Kaukauna. “Round House Manor sustained significant damage to its roof, leading to more than fifty people being displaced.”
Kaukauna Mayor Tony Penterman says the residents were taken to Kaukauna High School last night. The Red Cross is helping those who need a temporary place to stay.
“We are in talks with Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson who is in talks with Governor Evers for some additional help to potentially put them up because it might be several weeks or maybe even a month before they can get back into their location,” said Penterman.
Door County is also cleaning up today following the storm. Locals are still dodging fallen trees in the road as far north as Egg Harbor. Trees are being cleared from roadways by crews to get traffic flow safely restored for drivers.
Some homeowners in Door County are also on clean-up duty with trees falling on homes near the bayside. Suamico native Tom Massey found out early today that a group of trees fell on his second home in Egg Harbor while it was being rented out to Door County visitors.
“I did have eight trees taken down, so I figured I was safe,” said Massey. “Apparently not, there’s four more that I have to deal with now. It took me weeks to clean up after these other eight trees, so I’ve had enough of wood right now.”
The renters of the Egg Harbor home did not suffer any injuries from the storm.
And, in Green Bay, Brittany Schmidt talked with people overwhelmed by the damage to their homes.
“The most horrible sound I had ever heard, it was crack of thunder, sounded like shattering glass and lit up all through the house.”
Kathleen Fadale in Green Bay described a scary, close call during Tuesday night’s storm.
“The whole tree just came down.”
It crashed into the room where her husband was sitting. He was not injured.
“The whole ceiling on his side of the bed fell in, all the 2 x4 brought down, insulation all over the house,” said Fadale. “Very scary, I hope nobody else is having a bad day like this.”
Over on Carrie Lane, Diana Resch is dealing with the same type of damage.
“I knew it would be bad, but it’s just overwhelming.”
Diana says the wind was so strong that it even blew out her screen door completely through. When she looked at the damage outside, she realized this tree had fallen on her house, impacting her roof, then as she panned over and looked at her whole backyard, she had six trees down, three uprooted. The one that hit her home is also completely uprooted.
She has a lot of cleanup to do, but she is thankful no one was injured
“It’s not through the ceiling of upstairs, but it is crushing, heavy,” said Resch. “As time goes by, it’s been getting worse and worse so hoping to get it soon, I have family coming later to help.”
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