Severe Storms, Tornadoes rage through Midwest
Pastor Dale Morgan
Severe Storms, Tornadoes rage through Midwest*
By Robert Imrie, Associated Press Writer
WAUSAU, Wis. — Cleanup crews began assembling Friday to salvage remnants
of a northern Wisconsin resort demolished by one of at least five
tornadoes that swept across the state.
Severe thunderstorms spawned tornadoes, produced baseball-size hail and
dropped more than 6 inches of rain Thursday across the Upper Midwest,
killing a swimmer in Illinois. Four people in Wisconsin were injured,
none seriously.
Storm Prediction Center: Current severe weather watches, warnings
Some of the worst damage was at the 25-acre Bear Paw Outdoor Adventure
Resort near White Lake in Wisconsin. The northwoods resort runs along
the Wolf River.
"Our restaurant's totally gone. There's maybe two walls standing,"
co-owner Shirlee Roshe said. "Our entire retail shop was blown across
the road. Most of the merchandise was between the highway and the field
on the other side of the highway."
At least one kayak was thrown more than 30 feet into the remnants of
snapped pine trees.
"Most of our buildings are gone. I was just sickened," Roshe said as she
headed to the property to direct volunteers on cleanup efforts.
She said one employee on the property suffered minor cuts to the head.
Hailstones 4 inches wide fell in Wisconsin Rapids, knocking out the
windshields of several cars, including a police cruiser, dispatcher
Karen Ryun said.
In Illinois, 19-year-old Joshua Simpson drowned Thursday while trying to
save a female friend who was having trouble swimming in the choppy
waters of Lake Michigan near Waukegan, authorities said.
About 7,000 ComEd customers in northern Illinois were without power
Friday morning, spokesman Jeff Burdick said. He said more outages were
expected as moderate winds could knock already-weakened branches onto
power lines.
Heavy winds whipped across Chicago, snarling air travel. About 400
flights at O'Hare International Airport were canceled Thursday evening,
according to Wendy Abrams, spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of
Aviation.
Claudia Boelter of Elizabeth, Minn., took cover in a neighbor's house
after seeing a tornado touch down on a nearby lake.
"My husband was pulling some lawn furniture off of our deck, when all of
a sudden a black cloud came out right in front of us," she said. "We ran
next door, and I looked out their living room window. I could see this
cloud that was down on the lake, rotating and pulling water up."
Hail the size of golf balls was reported in parts of Minnesota. Gusty
winds knocked out power in parts of the Twin Cities.
In North Dakota, where the storms began late Wednesday, heavy rain
washed out roads. Bowman County emergency manager Dean Pearson said he
had reports of 1 1/2 to 6 1/4 inches of rain overnight.
"We've got some roads that are washed out and some areas that are still
running over the roadway," Pearson said. "It's been slow getting started
(to assess the damage) because it's so muddy that it's hard to get around."
Contributing: Associated Press writers Todd Richmond in Madison and
Gretchen Ehlke and Colin Fly in Milwaukee contributed to this report.