High winds, rainfall in storm cause lots of damage in county
A rather large line of severe weather came through Marquette County in the early evening of Wednesday, June 15th, which included very strong winds and heavy rainfall. The National Weather Service put several areas of Marquette County in a tornado warning. The Marquette County Sheriff's Office – Public Safety Room was opened as a storm shelter around 6 p.m. on Wednesday evening. Twenty-one citizens and visitors utilized the room as a safe place to wait out the storm.
Marquette County Emergency Management Director Aaron Williams reported that as a result of the storm, countless trees were blown over, uprooted, or snapped in half. Many trees landed on or around homes and buildings and several completely blocked roadways. Several homes and outbuildings sustained damage as they had roofs and siding blown off with some structures completely blown over or collapsed. Many people responded during and after the storm to assist. Law Enforcement, fire personnel, EMS, County Highway, municipal Public Works, electric companies, and private citizens all worked together to address safety concerns, clear roads, and restore power.
At one point as the storm passed through, Adams-Columbia Electric Cooperative reported around 6,300 customers were without power, primarily in Adams, Marquette and Waushara counties. Statewide, many power companies worked to restore power to tens of thousands of customers, including some locally. Pioneer Power & Light also had crews out in their territory following the storm.
Marquette County Emergency Management worked with the National Weather Service from Milwaukee/Sullivan on Thursday, June 16th, to conduct damage assessments and determine the storm path. The National Weather Service was unable to confirm any tornado activity for Marquette County but were confident, based on what they saw, to determine that we had straight-line wind gusts of 80-100 mph with some pockets along CTH JJ in the Town of Newton in excess of 100 mph.
