WISCONSIN RAPIDS, WI (WSAU) — Residents in Wisconsin Rapids were still cleaning up last weekend following strong winds that tore down trees and spawned at least five tornadoes in the Badger State last Wednesday. That included Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Shane Blaser.
The Mayor, who recently announced he’s running for re-election, found himself on the operating end of a chainsaw Thursday afternoon. “When I looked out [Thursday] morning I saw at least two trees on my detached garage,” said Blaser. “I had two in my back lot that also snapped off, [so that’s] four trees that snapped about halfway up.”
Blaser says fortunately there was no damage to his garage, and for the most part everyone else in the city managed to escape significant damage.
“I just talked to the streets department and they said we’ve maybe lost 60 trees through the community and in our parks system, so they’ve been working on cleaning up that,” he added.
Blaser adds because of the damage the city will hold a curbside pickup for large debris this week.
“Just have your brush pulled up to the road with the butt end facing the road, and crews will drive all the streets and take care of them,” said Blaser.
Blaser adds that the city may consider special hours at the yard waste site for those who miss the brush pick up if there is demand for it.
As far as utility service goes, Blaser says there were some customers without power into Friday but most had been reconnected by the weekend.
Blaser notes that a massive wind and rainstorm was not on his list of things to deal with this December, calling the situation “unique.”
“That’s Wisconsin weather. Kind of strange even for Wisconsin weather [actually,] having this kind of event. But, we all made it through. We are fortunate versus some others,” added Blaser.
The same line of storms spawned at least five tornados through Wisconsin including two in the Neillsville area and one that caused significant damage in the city of Stanley near the Clark-Chippewa County line.
The NWS Twin Cities office also confirmed one tornado in Eau Claire County and one in Trempealeau County. The latter was on the ground for just one minute and 2/3rds of a mile but damaged several homes and uprooted trees in the Village of Trempealeau.
Other topics Blaser discussed with WSAU’s Mike Leischner include:
Start of video- upcoming spring election
5:20- Storm cleanup update
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