As a University of Wisconsin student, walking to that early morning class is never easy – especially when trying to fight winds in excess of 40 miles per hour.
A heavy windstorm hit Madison Tuesday and left behind damaged and fallen trees along with minor power outages. In a severe case, a fallen tree limb crashed onto a roof, cut the house’s power source and caused minor fire damage, according to a statement from the Madison Fire Department.
The branch, over a foot in diameter, hit the roof of a Regent Street home near Madison’s west side. No one was inside the house when firefighters received the call around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The National Weather Service issued “High Wind Warnings” for most of Wisconsin beginning late last night. The warning for Dane Country said winds between 25 to 40 miles per hour occurred throughout Tuesday afternoon and some gusts potentially reached 50 to 60 mph, the National Weather Service said.
Local services, like Madison Gas & Electric and the city’s Forestry Division, had employee teams on call throughout the storm. MG&E representative Steve Kraus said the city experienced some power outages early Tuesday morning, however they were small and scattered throughout the Madison area.
“As of 3 p.m., there were probably 10 people out of service,” Kraus said.
Along with power outages, Kraus said the company noted other hazards like tree limbs touching wires or limbs breaking and harming wires due to the strong gusts of wind. City Forestry spokesperson Laura Whitmore said the forestry staff worked on clearing fallen tree limbs all day. The staff responds to both regular and 911 calls concerning down street trees, she said.
“Our staff prioritizes what needs to be done first for public safety,” Whitmore said. “Obviously we’re not talking about [clearing] small branches, but large parts of the tree.”
The city forestry received around 15 calls in regards to fallen city trees, according to Streets Superintendent Al Schumacher. He said the service also reported a fallen tree that landed on top of a house located on Lakeland Avenue on Madison’s east side.
Schumacher said he was more concerned about the near future rather than Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re worried after all the heavy rain over the past few days, heavy winds could potentially uproot some trees later in the night and into Wednesday,” Schumacher said.
Both Kraus and Whitmore said not many precautions exist for severe windstorms except alerting crews and preparing to take care of damages immediately.
Kraus said one of the most dangerous wind hazards is down power lines. People could be severely hurt if they come into contact with a down power line because there is no way to determine if the line energized or not.
However, Schumacher said the city could find ways to limit fallen tree limbs by maintaining the City Forestry’s trimming program. He said if the city continues to prune dead and diseased trees that are likely to fall down during a storm, safety hazards could potentially be averted.
Outside of Madison, a tornado was reported in Racine County, while airlines at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport cancelled as many as 500 flights, affecting several flights at Dane County Regional Airport.
– The Associated Press contributed to this report.
