Another day of cleanup
Damage from storms will require ‘major rebuild’ of electrical network
In its sixth straight day of severe weather, Wisconsin again experienced the strength of Mother Nature.
Residents on Wednesday cleaned up from one major thunderstorm in the August heat while preparing for the next one.
And utility crews undertook We Energies’ largest power restoration effort in the company’s history.
The massive storm Tuesday evening uprooted trees and knocked out power to 180,000 customers at its peak.
The damage is requiring a “major rebuild” of the area’s electrical network, one We Energies official said, and the outages could be a “multiday event” for many.
The situation was made more urgent by the forecast. Meteorologists expected Wednesday evening’s storms to pack a punch as well.
Around 6 p.m., a line of severe storms in western Wisconsin was moving slowly eastward, bringing a risk of tornadoes, hail and damaging winds. Additional thunderstorms were developing ahead of the line in the southern portions of Milwaukee and Waukesha counties, and afternoon storms in northeast Wisconsin had already produced at least three tornadoes, according to preliminary reports from the National Weather Service.
Compounding the issue, roughly 100,000 customers in southeast Wisconsin spent the day without power — and without air conditioning. The weather service projected heat indices would top 100 degrees. Officials opened cooling centers and reminded the public how to stay safe in the heat.
Storm uprooted trees, downed power lines
Of the several recent days of severe weather, Tuesday’s storms had the widest impact, especially in urban and suburban areas of Milwaukee. Previous storms generated tornadoes but damage largely occurred in rural areas.
Winds of around 50 mph, with some gusts reported as high as 70 mph, toppled large trees and power lines across the Milwaukee area. Soggy soil from several days of rain caused many trees to be easily uprooted and fall into homes and roads.
The Milwaukee Fire Department responded to 266 calls between 6 p.m. and midnight Tuesday, including 120 for storm-related issues, said Chief Aaron Lipski.
“The intensity of that storm really took us by surprise,” he said.
Crews were stretched thin responding to so many calls, including a large house fire on North Marietta Avenue near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that killed four pets.
DeWayne Smoots, a deputy chief with the fire department, said crews had a difficult time fighting the fire as the storm raged. Downed trees forced firefighters to “go around and zigzag to get into position to fight the fire,” he said.
Smoots said whether the fire was caused by a lightning strike is still under investigation. According to a GoFundMe page, three college students were displaced and all their belongings destroyed. The students were not injured in the house fire, although two guinea pigs, a bunny and a dog they were watching died.
No injuries have been reported in the area in connection with Tuesday’s storms.
But tree damage was widespread. The City of Milwaukee alone fielded over 900 calls for downed trees.
Three-quarters of those calls have a “critical safety-sensitive nature,” a designation for trees that have fallen on roads, driveways, cars and houses, said Randy Krouse, forestry services manager for the city’s Department of Public Works.
DPW crews are working day and night shifts but because much of the work is highly technical and sometimes involves power lines, they had gotten to roughly 5% to 10% of calls by mid-afternoon, Krouse said.
In Riverwest, Rebecca Szalewski’s car was totaled by a fallen tree outside her Humboldt Avenue home.
Szalewski created a GoFundMe page for the insurance deductible and unfinished car payment. She wrote that she is currently unemployed and has had trouble finding a job during the pandemic but needs transportation for upcoming job interviews.
In Shorewood, Alan and Sarah LaFollette were trying to figure out what to do about the new hole in their roof, especially with the upcoming storms. High winds Tuesday evening had caused a large tree to crack about halfway up its trunk and fall through their roof on East Stratford Court.
“I thought lightning had struck the house, it shook so much,” Alan said.
Faced with a downed tree blocking his driveway in Wauwatosa, Dianne Crowley’s husband took matters into his own hands and got out a chainsaw. He had to get to work Tuesday morning.
Dianne Crowley saw the tree in her front yard snap in half during the storm Tuesday night, taking down a city streetlight with it.
She’s lived at the home for nine years but has never seen a storm this bad.
“Not like this. Not this bad,” Crowley said.
More than a dozen tornadoes have occurred in Wisconsin in the last two weeks as the state has been stuck in a pattern of hot, humid weather.
It’s a sudden change after a largely dry June and July.
“It’s been unusual to have this much active weather for us, especially after not getting much at all for most of the summer,” said Chris Stumpf, a weather service meteorologist. “We went from a drought to a gangbuster number of storms.”
Power outages could last for days
The city of Milwaukee counted the most We Energies customers without power Wednesday in southeast Wisconsin, with about 34,000.
West Allis, Wauwatosa, Kenosha, New Berlin and Brookfield each reported between 5,000 and 6,000 customers without power.
We Energies is undertaking its largest restoration of power in the company’s history, said Tom Metcalfe, president of We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service, at a news conference in Glendale.
In addition to “many hundreds” of employees and contractors working to restore power, Metcalfe said the company is calling for aid outside the state.
“Our crews are encountering major damage,” Metcalfe said. “A lot of our system is down and is going to take a major rebuild of many portions of our network.”
The outages have been caused by “severe” winds and lightning strikes that damaged trees, poles and equipment, like transformers, lines and cables, Metcalfe said.
Exactly how long it will be until every customer’s power is restored is “hard to say” at this time, Metcalfe said. It’s dependent on resources, and the team was concerned with the additional severe storms expected Wednesday evening, he said.
“For many,” this will be a “multi-day event,” he said.
“We encourage all of our customers to be patient,” he said. “We’ll get to you as quickly as we can.”
In some areas, traffic lights remained out for hours, causing backups.
Lipski, of the fire department, urged residents not to touch downed power lines or anything the lines are touching. He said to call 911 to report the fallen lines, and if the line starts sparking or arcing before crews arrive, call back.
To better handle an influx of calls during Wednesday’s storms, Lipski said Milwaukee County has been divided into four equal quadrants, each with a command center.
Officials also provided resources to stay cool despite the ongoing heat.
The Milwaukee Health Department opened cooling centers and recommended people go to public spaces with air conditioning such as libraries, malls and community centers.
The National Weather Service recommends drinking plenty of fluids, wearing light and loose clothing and checking on neighbors in the high heat.
Infants, young children and the elderly are most susceptible to heatstroke.
If outside, try to stay out of the sun and limit physical exertion.
Taking cool showers or baths and keeping a fan on can also limit the risk of heatstroke or heat exhaustion.