SEYMOUR, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – National Weather Service says a tornado hit Seymour Wednesday night.
An NWS storm survey team confirmed the tornado on Thursday. It was rated EF1.
That tornado caused quite a bit of damage. Many roads there are still closed and crews are still working to clear a path.
Areas like Appleton and Greenville weren’t hit too badly, but places like Black Creek and Seymour, weren’t so lucky.
“I was pretty impressed with how powerful the wind can be!” Seymour homeowner Brian Hasse said. “I wasn’t expecting that at all.”
A video taken by the Hasse family Wednesday night shows the seconds before a tornado ripped through Seymour, leveling Hasse’s garage.
“All of a sudden, a half hour before the storm was supposed to even hit, we saw these trees start tumbling; they were ripping out of the ground, and everything like that,” Hasse explained. “We were on the front porch, and we had to run inside pretty quickly and get into the basement. It was pretty frightening.”
Hasse and his family were able to make it to the basement safely and surprisingly no damage was done to his house.
Still, the storm left plenty of destruction in its path and the cleanup began.
This was the same for others in the county, as well.
“I think the biggest thing right now is the power poles down, I mean, we’ve got a stretch of power poles, and I’ve heard 15 of them are down in one stretch,” Outagamie County emergency management director Paula Rieder said.
People in Black Creek saw their fair share of those downed power poles and powerlines – officials there say as many as 20 are down.
The severe winds also completely took roofs off homes, demolished sheds, throwing debris all over.
This left most without power, so the Black Creek Fire Department is opening its doors to those who need some help.
“What we’re offering here is if you need your electronic device charged, feel free to come down,” said Glen Bunnell with the Black Creek Fire Department. “We have power here; we’re running on a generator. If you need water for your animals, or you need water for yourself, you know, come on down, we will help you in any way, shape or form we can.”
Outagamie Emergency Management says, for places throughout the county, it could be days for power to be up and running again.
