Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Photo by Grace Kirchner Matt and Ginger Holbrook’s home at E5653 Gruenstern Road in Marion was extensively damaged Monday by a tornado. Except for the house, a barn and other small buildings on the property were all flattened. Ron and Barb Sauer owned the barn and housed horses there.
Photo by Grace Kirchner A loafing shed that stood near the barn on the Ron and Barb Sauer farm in Marion was demolished by a tornado Monday afternoon. The barn is reported to be off its foundation.
National Weather Service officials were in Shawano and surrounding counties Tuesday assessing damage from severe storms that produced multiple tornado sightings Monday evening.
The worst damage was reported in Waupaca County, where sheriff’s officials say a mother saved her three young children from injury as a tornado hit their house on Gruenstern Road in the town of Dupont just outside of Marion.
Authorities say the woman heard the wind pick up about 5 p.m. Monday and moved two of her children, ages 4 and 7, to the bottom of a stairway. She ran to an upstairs bedroom where her 1-year-old daughter was sleeping, but couldn’t get the door open as the tornado bore down. The glass had already blown out of the bedroom window.
The sheriff’s department says the mother eventually got the door open, grabbed the girl and joined the two other children at the bottom of the stairway. All escaped serious injury.
The tornado took off the roof of the house and caused other damage. A neighbor’s barn was leveled and there was extensive damage to a second house and farm buildings.
Despite heavy downpours, and scattered reports of power outages, the only damage reported in Shawano County was a shed that was destroyed in Pella.
“We got lucky,” said Natalie Easterday, emergency management director for Shawano County.
Information about the strength of Monday’s tornadoes should be available in a few days, Easterday said, after the NWS completes its damage assessment and issues its report.
Preliminary reports indicate an EF-1 tornado touched down in Waupaca County and an EF-0 hit Pella in Shawano County.
Circulation was also reported southeast of Shawano near Belle Plaine at 5:17 p.m. Another tornado spotting was reported in the southeast portion of the city near County Road B around 5:30 p.m..
Shawano Police Chief Mark Kohl said one tree and some wires were down in the city.
Shawano County sirens were first set off at 5 p.m. after the report of the tornado touching down near Marion, and were set off again with the sighting southeast of the city.
There were mixed reports coming in Tuesday about whether the sirens in Wescott went off.
Easterday said all the sirens were activated, but it’s up to the municipalities to maintain the sirens and ensure they are working properly.
She said the county was working with local officials and their equipment vendors to resolve any issues.
Easterday said the storm provided another good reminder for residents to get an emergency weather radio to keep up on alerts, given that the sirens best serve only those that are outdoors.
Easterday has also been pushing for the county to purchase an emergency alert notification system, known as Code Red, that would send out alerts via phone to landlines as well as cell phones.
“I encourage the county to take a look at that,” she said.