Tim Ryan, tryan@shawanoleader.com
Shawano County highway crews were still in cleanup mode Friday, the day after a one-two punch from Mother Nature that socked the area with a double dose of storms.
Separate storm fronts early Thursday morning and Thursday evening dumped an estimated four inches of rain in the county, damaging trees and power lines and flooding some roadways.
Highway Commissioner Grant Bystol said county crews worked all hours of the night Thursday removing fallen trees from roadways.
They returned Friday to get to the smaller debris.
Flooding was an issue for some county roads where culverts and driveway pipes weren’t able to handle the water.
The heaviest rains fell over the course of only a few hours Thursday night.
Bystol said crews were also out Friday putting up signs warning of high water on the roadways in some areas. The worst of that was on County Road VV, he said.
The Sheriff’s Department had taken 12 reports of debris in roadways from the two storms by 11 p.m. Thursday, including trees blocking roads in Belle Plaine, Lessor, Bowler, Red Springs, Green Valley, Washington, Wescott, Angelica and on the northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 45 between Wittenberg and Eland.
In Red Springs, a caller reported a utility wire was down and set a tree on fire. Trees were also reported down on utility lines along County Road VV in Red Springs.
At least one minor accident was attributed to the storm by a driver who told authorities he lost control in the rain.
City crews were also out collecting stray tree limbs and other brush Friday, but “nothing that major,” according to Shawano Public Works Coordinator Eddie Sheppard.
Sheppard said there was some flooding in spots, but the water quickly subsided. Also, as of Friday afternoon, the department hadn’t gotten any calls about flooded basements.
“So far so good,” Sheppard said.
Shawano police logged seven weather-related calls, including a limb that took out a power line in the 300 block of South Bartlett Street, lines down in the 600 block of East Division Street, a tree blocking the road on Acorn Street, and flooding at Elizabeth and Lincoln streets and in the 1000 block of South Cleveland Street.
Shawano Municipal Utilities reported two significant outages due to the storms.
The first storm early Thursday morning snapped a tree limb on Danks Street that in turn snapped two of the utility’s power poles. Some 30 to 40 customers within a four-block area were without power for six to seven hours, according to SMU Electrical Supervisor/Engineer Rob Koepp.
Shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday, a portion of a roof blew off in the 600 block of East Division Street, taking out a power line and causing an outage for about 100 customers for roughly two hours.
“We’ve been busy the last couple of days,” Koepp said.
A number of residents throughout Shawano County lost power during Thursday night’s storm, including 29 customers of Wisconsin Public Service in Aniwa that were still without power mid-afternoon Friday, according to the utility.
More than 14,000 WPS customers were still without power Friday afternoon throughout northern Wisconsin.
Alliant Energy customers on the Menominee Indian Reservation lost power for two hours in Middle Village, Neopit and Zoar and, in a separate outage, for three hours in Keshena.
Another three-hour outage affected Middle Village, Neopit and Zoar on Friday when several trees damaged by Thursday’s storm gave way and fell onto utility lines.
Menominee County Emergency Management Director Shelley Williams said there were also a number of trees down on roads, but there were no injuries and no property damage.
“It wasn’t too bad,” she said. “We were lucky.”