Community continues cleanup after tornado touched down in Kaukauna
KAUKAUNA, Wis. (WFRV) – Community members, city staff, and tree removal companies continue cleaning up after that powerful storm ripped through the area on Tuesday night.
Officials with Jason’s Tree Service, which is part of Lowney’s Landscaping Center, told Local 5 News that they’ve received over 100 calls from people needing them to remove trees.
“Kind of a madhouse, we run around getting to everyone we can,” said Adam Pashouwer who is an arborist with Jason’s Tree Service.
Local 5 News met Pashouwer in Appleton as they removed a tree that had fallen onto the roof of a home. He said they have to prioritize potential jobs when they get an influx of calls after a storm.
“What’s the worst damage, what’s the most dangerous trees, those are the ones we get to first,” he said.
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He said in general the most dangerous trees are the ones that caused property damage or potentially could cause property damage. He said that he hopes by the end of the weekend they can wrap up the high-priority dangerous tree calls and move on to other jobs involving clearing trees.
With the volume of calls they’re getting, he said he’s asking the community to be patient with them.
“Right now I urge people to be patient, be calm, the worst thing that could happen is causing injury or more damage if you start working on a tree that you think you can handle yourself,” he said.
Over in a backyard in Kaukauna, Dan Williamson of Williamson Stump Grinding is removing a stump from a tree that fell during the storm.
He said on normal days calls are very intermittent, sometimes just one per day. The last two days he said he’s received about 10 or 15 calls from people needing his services after the storm.
Unlike his friends in the tree-removing business, Williamson can’t begin work on calls right away.
“I have to call digger’s hotline for every stump and get it located so I don’t hit any underground utilities,” he said.
He said the people with the digger’s hotline take about 10 days to clear him to begin working on stump removal. So he expects to be really busy 10-12 days from now.
All over Kaukauna, people are doing their best to clean up after the storm. Crews with the city have been working hard to remove debris from the streets and other areas around the city.
At Holy Cross Cemetery, people there are also trying to clean up. A tree fell into the cemetery damaging about a dozen graves. There are also large branches littered throughout the cemetery.
Beginning on Wednesday, people have been volunteering their time to help out with that cleanup effort.
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“If it wasn’t for the volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to do this, we had so many people step up to the plate,” said David Haessly who is the head of the Holy Cross Cemetery committee.
He said he’s doing everything he can to make sure all the tombstones get repaired. He expects cleaning up all the branches and debris from the cemetery will take several weeks and that removing the big tree that fell and then repairing the tombstones may take longer.
Haessly said this storm was the worst he can remember in terms of the amount of damage it caused to the cemetery.
All over Kaukauna, debris piles fill up the terraces of people’s front yards. City officials said they will pick up any debris residents leave on the curb.
“If you can cut it up into smaller pieces it’s appreciated, we have a claw grabber that can pick up some big chunks,” said Kaukauna mayor Tony Penterman.” Just try to not to block the sidewalk.”
Penterman said it might take several weeks for them to get to everybody’s home so he’s asking people to be patient with the city when it comes to their debris piles.
The city did set up a debris dropoff site near the softball field across from the public pool.
While the storm damage in Kaukauna was significant, most people that Local 5 News spoke with said they’re thankful that it wasn’t worse. Mayor Penterman confirmed to Local 5 News that nobody was hurt and community members said that’s the most important thing.
The City of Kaukauna officials are also collecting food to help the 50 people who can’t stay at their homes or apartments tonight because of storm damage. If you’re interested in donating food, please contact the city hall.
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