DOOR COUNTY - Southern Door County suffered the brunt of the damages and power outages caused by the violent storms that blasted through Wisconsin on Wednesday.

The storm wreaked havoc across the state, spawning numerous tornado warnings with at least three suspected to have touched down near Mauston and Tomah by late afternoon and in Seymour around 6:15 p.m., sustained winds of more than 50 mph with gusts reported in the 70s, and torrential rainfall in some locations. Well over 100,000 Wisconsin Public Service customers were without power at times, including more than 39,000 in Brown County on Wednesday evening.

The danger and severity of the storms and threat of tornadoes lessened as the storm front moved past the bay of Green Bay and into Door County at about 7 p.m. But winds were still strong at the leading edge of the front, with Green Bay TV stations reporting the winds may have still been gusting in the 60- to 70-mph range as the storm swept into Southern Door. Cherryland Airport in Sturgeon Bay reported a sudden jump in wind speed from about 20 mph just before 7 p.m. to 43 mph, with an accompanying gust of 51 mph, at 7:05 p.m.

The worst of the damages and power outages appear to have taken place around Brussels, Gardner and Union as well as in Sturgeon Bay.

WPS was reporting 1,187 outages in Door County after the storm passed Wednesday night, with more than 1,100 of those in the Brussels-Union-Gardner area, more than 500 in Union and Gardner each. The countywide total was down to 615 by noon Thursday, with 362 remaining in Gardner.

In Sturgeon Bay, Jason Bieri, electrical utility manager for Sturgeon Bay Utilities, which serves the city, said Thursday morning that the utility experienced eight outages that affected about 200 customers, most of those in the Thunderhill Estates trailer park on North 14th Avenue. Bieri said all of those outages were fixed within about two hours.

The Door County Sheriff's Department responded to 20 calls for trees blown down and eight for downed power lines between just before 7 p.m. and about 10 p.m. Wednesday. Seven of the tree calls and six of the power lines were in the Brussels-Union-Gardner area while eight tree calls and two power line calls were for Sturgeon Bay.

"There were a lot of issues from Sturgeon Bay south," Chief Deputy Pat McCarty said Thursday morning. He said the area around County C and County K in Brussels especially was heavily damaged by the winds, noting he saw one machine shed that had its roof blown off, and there were reports of fires caused by trees falling on power lines and arcing the current.

Sturgeon Bay Assistant Fire Chief Kalin Montevideo said her department responded to five calls for downed power lines, all on the East Side of the city, that included some lines with arcing currents because of trees falling on them. However, she said any fires that might have caused went out almost immediately because the current then went out.

Contact Christopher Clough at 920-741-7952, 920-562-8900 or cclough@doorcountyadvocate.com.

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