New London, Hortonville hit with storms, tornadoes
By John Faucher
A line of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes ripped through the area in the late morning and early afternoon hours Saturday, July 20 causing widespread damage and power outages.
The National Weather Service reports areas with the worst damage appear to have been hit with a “macroburst,” which is a large downburst of straight-line winds.
The weather service also reported an FI tornado near New London that proceeded southeast toward the Fox Valley.
According to the weather service, the storm left many tens of thousands of trees snapped or uprooted, resulting in damage to dozens of homes and cottages.
In New London, extensive damage to property and infrastructure occurred in the July 20 storm. The damage for some was comparable to the Aug. 20, 2010 storm that took down over a 1,000 trees and left 3,500 homes without power.
Steve Thompson, New London Utilities Manager, said in terms of utility damages, the recent storm was “totally different than the 2010 storm.”
The 2010 storm took out substations, while the recent storm left most of its damage to service hook-ups power lines and poles.
Thompson said this storm was more widespread across the city than the one in 2010.
Power outages
Because of the widespread nature of the storm across the entire region, extra line crews from outside agencies were unavailable to respond to help New London Utility line crews.
New London’s crew of 10 linemen worked nearly around the clock since the storm hit late Saturday morning.
“Immediately after the storm we had 2,400 customers without power. By late Monday, there were less than 10 without power in the city,” said Thompson.
WE Energies reported that some of its customers in rural areas could be without power “for several days.”
Dorie Huss, a homeowner west of New London High School in the Town of Mukwa said they still did not have power as of early Monday evening.
“This is the longest we have been without power since we built the home in 1985,” said Huss.
She said her and her husband Tom were both thankful they had power at their business the Bottle Shop on West Wolf River Avenue in New London.
Tom Huss was working the shop when the storm hit.
“The lights flickered and went out for about a second and came back on,” said Tom Huss.
“We lost a sign and that was it.”
A city traffic sign next his building was snapped off at the post and another street sign with a metal post was bent down to the ground from the wind gusts.
Thompson said some parts of the storm brought 70 to 110 mile-per-hour winds.
“As a result trees with full foliage really took a beating,” said Thompson.
He believed the overall tree damage from the recent storm was “far worse than the 2010 storm.”
In 35 years with New London Utilities, Thompson recalls three major storm events of this category.
“Each one is different. This one was followed by better weather afterwards,” said Thompson, who recalled the 90-degree high humidity, and rains that fell with the 2010 storm.
In that storm, New London experienced 2.4 inches of rain and damaging hail along with the strait line winds.
Thompson said Saturday’s storm ranks right up there in the top one or two in his memory.
“This was just lots of stuff everywhere, it affected more areas,” Thompson said.
“I can’t thank my crew and the citizens of New London enough for working through this.”
Mayor Gary Henke said Monday that it could take a while to get an actual damage estimate from the storm but “it is really extensive.”
City public works employees and police and fire personnel responded to numerous calls for service during and after the storm.
“We’ve hired DTAK (a local disaster relief firm) with four trucks to help clean-up and asked everyone not to park on streets so they can get access to debris on the curbs,” Henke said.
Chad Hoerth Director of Public Services for the City of New London said the no parking order on city streets went into effect Saturday afternoon.
The city also established four brush collection sites for citizens to deposit brush and branches from the storm.
Brush drop off sites include; an area just south of the New London dog park, the old city garage site across from the Waupaca County Highway department shop, the yard waste collection site behind Floral Hill Cemetery and an area behind Hatten Stadium.
Hoerth said if residents received damage to their homes or vehicles they should call their insurance providers immediately and if possible take pictures of the damage.
Numerous cars were smashed and homes damaged by fallen trees and limbs throughout the city.
Dennis Beeman, who was in town visiting family in the city’s fifth ward, said he watched a tree flatten a car near Shiocton Street.
“It didn’t just snap, it twisted,” said Beeman. “The winds changed and you could just watch the tops of the trees turning, that’s when we thought OK, this is getting pretty serious,” he said.
Kathie Fehrman, a resident who lives a few blocks away on West Street, watched the beginning of the storm out a window with her husband and her oldest son.
She said they could hear the storm coming from Northport moving through the swamp towards them.
It did not take long and the brunt of the storm hit.
“The trees were spinning and bent over, branches were flying everywhere,” Fehrman said.
She hid in the bathroom after that.
“I’ve never been so afraid in my life. I’m still shook up,” she said on Monday sitting around a campfire burning brush from the storm.
The Fehrmans had two vehicles damaged and a neighbor across the street had a tree land on a garage.
Henke said the damage left New London Parks a mess.
A city owned building that just received a new roof in Franklin Park had substantial damage from a large tree that crashed through part of the roof.
Thompson said the number of people driving around looking at damage after the storm was a hindrance to response crews.
“People are naturally curious and I understand that but, driving around right after a storm can be extremely dangerous,” said Thompson.
Hortonville damages
Hortonville Village Administrator David DeTroye reported that most of the damage in the village was vegetative in nature.
One residential structure received damages when a tree landed on the roof and eave. DeTroye said a window at the Hortonville Opera House was blown out.
Members of the police, fire and public works assisted with immediate clean up on Saturday.
“Public works employees initiated the emergency response plan of the village to keep the treatment plant, wells, water tower and lift stations functioning properly,” DeTroye said.
“Clean up will continue for this week and will resume until all brush has been collected,” DeTroye said. “The compost site will remain open to village residents indefinitely for those that are able to haul.”