Storm knocks down trees and turns off power in Waukesha

Todd Ponath
A tree at a home on Misty Lane in Waukesha had a large tree blown over in their front yard. Powerful storms with strong winds knocked trees and power lines down throughout the area.
Published on: 7/1/2014

This week's storm that brought heavy winds and rain through the region made its impact felt in Waukesha.

The city was littered with tree branches, large and small, and power outages were widespread, including at the Shoppes at Fox River and numerous traffic signals along busy roads, by the time the storm passed late Monday, June 30.

At the Shoppes, located off Sunset Drive, the parking lot and buildings were mostly dark, except for Pick 'n Save and Target, into Tuesday morning. Near downtown, the Waukesha YMCA sent out an email announcing it was closed Tuesday due to power outages.

As of Tuesday afternoon, We Energies spokeswoman Jessica Williamson said there were still about 4,100 customers without power. She said power for more than 4,200 customers had been restored.

Williamson said she had hoped to have all the power restored in Waukesha by 11 p.m. Wednesday, July 2.

"We're hoping Mother Nature cooperates with us," Williamson said.

The clean-up was so extensive that crews from the Fox Valley were called down to the Waukesha-Milwaukee area to assist.

"This was a huge outage for us," Williamson said. "We have a lot of boots on the pavement. There was extensive damage to our electrical network. And there was so much tree debris that electrical poles snapped wires down."

In some cases, she said, We Energies crews have had to rebuild new equipment.

Here's a photo gallery of the destruction that the storm left behind throughout Waukesha County.