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A devastating EF3 tornado
with winds up to 140
miles per hour hit the
Appleton area on Monday.
It leaves people without power under
boil water advisories, curfews,
and pleas to shelter in place to
keep roads clear.
People are in shelters as donations
pour in, all as communities
try to pick up the of their
homes and lives.
This week, Governor Tony Evers
declared a state of emergency and
activated the National Guard to
ensure every available resource
is deployed in response.
The city of Menasha took a direct
hit from the tornado as
it moved south from Appleton.
Menasha Mayor Austin Hammond joins
us now. Mayor, thanks very much for
being here.
Thank you for having me.
How are you and your city doing
right now?
We're doing all right.
There is a huge influx
of helping hands over the
last couple of days.
We have a volunteer
operation happening at
the former UWO Fox Cities campus,
and Volunteer Fox Cities is running
that.
And yesterday alone, we had 1,200
volunteers, which has been
incredible.
And we've been blessed
by neighboring municipalities coming
to help us. Or utility company
in this spot.
Damage from the storm is remarkably
significant.
People have lost their homes, people
have lost lost
their businesses, public
infrastructure, power out.
Our water plants were hit and
we're reliant on the City of Nena to
help us do that and as was mentioned
earlier some of the areas of water
service are under a water boil
advisory right now so.
It's been a difficult and
challenging and trying week, but the
folks here at the City of Kinashe
are strong and resilient and
are making the most
of it. So even in the most darkest
and difficult moments, people are
choosing to look out for each other
and find ways to lift each other
up.
And it's also been incredible to see
the public sector,
private sector, faith
communities all come together to
uplift our community.
So.
It's really been truly
incredible to see people come
together in this really difficult
moment, but
it's incredibly
sad how much damage has
happened to do to the storm.
Yeah, I wanted to ask, the
pictures tell the story,
right, but what was the scale of
this? How many homes
and businesses and how much
infrastructure was flattened
or damaged?
We're still assessing that actively
as time goes on.
So we have crews out assessing
homes right now and
taking them on if they're
habitable or not.
So that's something that is ongoing
and actively being looked at.
So despite this enormous property
damage, how surprising is
it that no one was killed?
I mean, it's a miracle.
It's truly remarkable.
I think some of it has to do with
time of day in the middle of the
week.
Thankfully, many folks were
at work.
And then I think notifications that
were given to give people ample
notice of the storm to get into safe
locations was another part of it.
But it really is a miracle
that nobody,
to this point in time, there's no
fatalities because of
the storms.
What is the state at
week's end here of restoration of
services and cleanup?
Yeah, so our
in the city of Manassia, we have the
national utilities, a local utility
company, uh, and
they have been restoring a great
amount of power through our
community.
So, uh.
Near our downtown and
the further side of the city, and
it's going to take quite a while yet
for restoration of power
to be done collectively
throughout the entire city, but
they're making tremendous progress.
So we're doing very quick.
So that has been.
Very, very encouraging to see, uh,
and then right now we're in
operation of clearing debris
throughout the city of Menasha.
So we've contracted, uh
contractors to come in and help our
departments, uh
remove some of that debris.
And earlier this week, there's
a state of emergency emergency,
excuse me, declared by, uh
Governor Tony Evers and what that
we've activated the National Guard.
We requested to activate the
National Guard and was granted by
the governor and National
Guard are here today and
they're going to start with traffic
control and things like that to help
us go in more
specific sections of our
community so those contractors can
do that important work to
remove the debris.
So we're actively getting as
much of the debris out as
possible. Utilities are working
tirelessly to get power
back on.
And in addition to our first
responders, law enforcement have
just been doing an incredible job
making sure people are taken
care of and provided for.
And there's just been a ton of
volunteer efforts to make
sure that we're providing people
with a pooling shelter as places to
recharge their phone, have a meal,
have water, right?
It's just all hands on deck and
really collectively making sure that
our community is provided for her.
I know you're doing all of that work
and it's early, but do you have any
ballpark damage estimates yet?
I don't at this time, just because
the assessment is ongoing,
there is a great and significant
amount of damage with the assessment
process and this is continuing
to progress.
How long do you think it will take
Menasha to recover?
I think we have a long road
ahead of us.
I think there'll be much, much work
to do for days, weeks,
and possibly months in some
aspects of it.
I mean, the damage of the storm is
devastating,
and I can't stress enough just how
much loss there has been.
And my heart goes out to those
residents, and I want to know that I
see them and I hear them.
And we're in this together.
I need to take it a day at a time.
But I think the important thing.
To know in circumstances like this
is we needed to one
step at a time in order to activate
the next step.
So right now making sure people are
safe, making sure people have those
immediate basic needs,
and then making sure we have
roads clear
so contractors and our crews
and all the
municipalities that are coming in to
help us can do that important work
to clear out our roads,
build back up our utility.
And then the next phases will come
in where people can get their
garbage out and other things like
that So it's it's gonna be
a long road ahead of us.
I anticipate many weeks yet
What does your community need most
now?
I think the community right now
needs most, I
would probably say just
to be able to have the opportunity
to have that work done
that is so needed of removing the
debris.
And I would just put a mask out that
people are not coming
to Gawk while people are
in some of the darkest moments of
their life trying to clean up their
home, clean up the debris, when
people are coming and congesting our
streets it's making it difficult for
the work that needs to be done to be
effectively. So, if you're coming
to Menashe, the...
Be a helping hand.
Please go visit volunteer
Fox Cities website and that has
all the volunteer opportunities
there based out of the old
UWO Fox Cities campus
off of Midway.
We would love to have you come
volunteer.
We need collaboration
and partnership and I would ask for
people to watch the news
and look at pictures that way of
what has been happening in our
community.
Uh, but right now I would just say
we really need the ability to
let the work be done that needs to
be done, whether it's our volunteers
doing incredible work, the national
guard, our
emergency management, first
responders, department of
public works, utility company,
the contract at work, the
sooner all of that can happen quick
and efficiently and without
interruption, the quicker we can
kind of expedite this process.
Mayor Austin Hammond, thanks very
much and really good luck to you.
Thank you very much for having me.
Have you gotten much sleep?
Uh, not a lot.
No, I have not gotten much sleep,
but I
just,
it's really difficult to
know the pain that so many people
are going through.
Uh, and you
know, it.
Really hard to just wrap your head
around how much our community
has gone through this week, but it's
really encouraging at the same time,
just the love that people have for
each other. It's a weird moment,
I guess, is what I'm trying to
articulate. There's so much
love and there's so goodwill
and people looking out for each
other, but yet there's still so much
pain and there is so much loss.
It's just kind of a weird space at
the end.
Yeah, yeah for sure.
Well, thank you again for taking
time out and talking with
us
Yes, thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Okay, all right, again, good luck.
Thank you.
Hi.