TOWN OF GENEVA, Wis. \u2014 People across Walworth County spent Wednesday cleaning up after powerful storms tore through the area Friday, leaving behind damaged homes, downed trees and a long recovery ahead.<\/p>\n
The National Weather Service in Milwaukee surveyed the damage and said preliminary findings show the destruction was caused by straight-line downburst winds, not a tornado. Peak wind speeds were estimated between 90 and 100 mph.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
People across Walworth County spent Wednesday cleaning up after powerful storms tore through the area Friday<\/p>\n
The National Weather Service in Milwaukee surveyed the damage and said preliminary findings show the destruction was caused by straight-line downburst winds, not a tornado<\/p>\n
\u00a0The Downtown Lake Geneva Business Improvement District has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help neighbors recover<\/p>\n
In the Town of Geneva, crews and homeowners worked to clear fallen trees from yards, roads and houses. Some trees crushed vehicles. Others punched through roofs.<\/p>\n
For Jeanne Kuttnauer, the cleanup started inside her home after branches crashed through the roof and left the house unlivable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love our little home, but it is half destroyed right now,\u201d Kuttnauer said. \u201cAll of the branches came through the kitchen and living room, and water was just pouring in through the holes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, she is sorting through the damage, working with insurance, waiting to find out whether the foundation was affected and trying to figure out where her family will stay during repairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have insulation everywhere. We have piles of ceiling in our kitchen. All our living room furniture is destroyed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Not far away, Mike Werediuk was also dealing with storm damage. He said he got stuck inside his truck as the wind whipped through the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was terrible,\u201d Werediuk said. \u201cI got trapped in the truck for 10 to 20 minutes. The wind was rocking the truck. You couldn’t get out, and it just kept moving.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the hardest losses, he said, was a tree he planted with his mother as a child.<\/p>\n
\u201cI planted this tree with my mom when I was 8 or 10 years old,\u201d he said. \u201cI hate to cut it down, but I don’t really see any other choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
As cleanup continues, local groups are stepping in to help. The Downtown Lake Geneva Business Improvement District has launched a GoFundMe campaign for storm recovery. It is also partnering with Walworth County Habitat for Humanity to help connect families with tree removal, temporary housing assistance and repairs that insurance may not cover.<\/p>\n
Organizers say they hope the effort helps families start rebuilding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOWN OF GENEVA, Wis. \u2014 People across Walworth County spent Wednesday cleaning up after powerful storms tore through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[49480,2890,49481,65,1202,2893,11706,876,11710],"class_list":["post-100322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-alyson-bruner","tag-app-top-stories","tag-app-weather","tag-geneva","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod","tag-weather","tag-wisconsin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116888819745998790","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}