Nearly two dozen emergency management offices in Wisconsin activated Wednesday

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - Emergency management teams across Wisconsin sprang into action Wednesday, as severe storms swept across the state. The state’s emergency operations center, ReadyWisconsin, reports county and tribal emergency centers stretching from Monroe to Marinette counties were activated.

Approximately two dozen of them reported to state officials that their regions suffered damage to trees, buildings, and other property as the storm pushed through Wisconsin, bringing high winds, hail, and rain to many regions. Monroe Co., which also saw reports of a tornado, noted two people were injured when semis were toppled, but no other major injuries or deaths from the severe weather has been confirmed.

In all, nearly 90,000 utility customers lost their electricity at some point during the storms or aftermath. ReadyWisconsin added that crews are working to restore power to those who are still in the dark and directed people to contact their local utilities for information about repairs.

As of noon on Thursday, M&GE was reporting the number of its customers still without electricity had dropped to 160, half of what was indicated at the beginning of the day. The Madison utility company saw far fewer customers lose power on Wednesday than during the storms two days earlier. Those storms at the beginning of the week knocked out electricity for approximately 21,000 of its customers and the utility was still working to complete those repairs when the new system arrived.

Alliant, which escaped with far fewer outages than MG&E on Monday, was hit much harder by the latest system. Across Wisconsin and Iowa, more than 20,000 of its customers lost power on Wednesday. More than half of those being in southern Wisconsin, where a tornado cut a fifteen-mile path across Monroe Co. and many surrounding communities reported heavy storm damage.

As of noon on Thursday, the number of total customers without electricity had fallen below ten thousand, approximately 3,200 of whom spanned southern Wisconsin.

While on a small business tour in Tomah Thursday morning, Gov. Evers said the state is still determining whether homeowners need recovery assistance.

“Before we say yes or no on the day after, we have to do the due diligence, which means sit down and figure out exactly how much damage, and I haven’t had any reports of that yet, and that, frankly, usually takes a lot of time,” Evers said.

After his tour, Evers visited some of the areas hit hardest by the storm.

Teams from the National Weather Service are conducting surveys of the damage across the state. ReadyWisconsin recommends people document any cleanup they do on their property and check with their local government websites to learn how that information should be reported.

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