WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:17.560 The full episode of Inside Wisconsin Politics is available wherever you get your podcasts. 00:17.560 --> 00:25.440 A devastating EF3 tornado with winds up to 140 mph hit the Appleton area on Monday. 00:25.440 --> 00:30.800 It leaves people without power under boil water advisories, curfews and pleas to shelter 00:30.800 --> 00:33.520 in place to keep roads clear. 00:33.520 --> 00:38.940 People are in shelters as donations pour in, all as communities try to pick up the pieces 00:38.940 --> 00:41.200 of their homes and lives. 00:41.200 --> 00:45.760 This week, Governor Tony Evers declared a state of emergency and activated the National 00:45.760 --> 00:51.160 Guard to ensure every available resource is deployed in response. 00:51.160 --> 00:57.480 The City of Manasha took a direct hit from the tornado as it moved south from Appleton. 00:57.480 --> 01:03.280 Manasha Mayor Austin Hammond joins us now and Mayor, thanks very much for being here. 01:03.280 --> 01:04.880 Thank you for having me. 01:04.880 --> 01:09.080 How are you and your city doing right now? 01:09.080 --> 01:11.520 We're doing all right. 01:11.520 --> 01:16.440 There is a huge influx of helping hands over the last couple of days. 01:16.440 --> 01:23.360 We have a volunteer operation happening at the former UW Old Fox City's campus and 01:23.360 --> 01:28.920 volunteer Fox City's is running that and yesterday along we had 1200 volunteers, which 01:28.920 --> 01:34.640 has been incredible and we've been blessed by neighboring municipalities coming to help 01:34.640 --> 01:35.640 us. 01:35.640 --> 01:42.520 They were a utility company despite the damage from the storm is remarkably significant. 01:42.520 --> 01:48.440 People have lost their homes, people have lost their businesses, public infrastructure 01:48.440 --> 01:55.200 power out, our water plants were hit and we're reliant on the city of Nina to help us do 01:55.200 --> 01:56.200 that. 01:56.200 --> 02:01.800 And as was mentioned earlier, some of the areas of water service are under water boil advisory 02:01.800 --> 02:02.800 right now. 02:02.800 --> 02:06.600 So it's been a difficult and challenging and trying week. 02:06.600 --> 02:11.840 The folks here at the City of Manasha are strong and resilient and are making the most 02:11.840 --> 02:12.840 of it. 02:12.840 --> 02:16.960 So even in the most darkest and difficult moments, people are choosing to work out for 02:16.960 --> 02:20.920 each other and find ways to lift each other up. 02:20.920 --> 02:27.040 And it's also been incredible to see the public sector, private sector, faith communities 02:27.040 --> 02:30.040 all come together to uplift our community. 02:30.040 --> 02:35.680 So it's really been truly incredible to see people come together in this really difficult 02:35.680 --> 02:36.680 moment. 02:37.680 --> 02:44.000 But it's incredibly sad how much damage has happened to the storm. 02:44.000 --> 02:47.800 Yeah, I wanted to ask the pictures tell the story, right? 02:47.800 --> 02:49.800 But what was the scale of this? 02:49.800 --> 02:56.720 How many homes and businesses and how much infrastructure was flattened or damaged? 02:56.720 --> 03:00.200 We're still assessing that actively as time goes on. 03:00.200 --> 03:08.200 So we have crews out assessing homes right now and taking them on if they're habitable 03:08.200 --> 03:09.200 or not. 03:09.200 --> 03:12.840 So that's something that is ongoing and actively being loved at. 03:12.840 --> 03:20.400 So despite this enormous property damage, how surprising is it that no one was killed? 03:20.400 --> 03:22.320 I mean, it's a miracle. 03:22.320 --> 03:23.800 It's truly remarkable. 03:23.800 --> 03:28.840 I think some of it has to do with time of day in the middle of the week. 03:28.840 --> 03:32.840 Thankfully, many folks were at work. 03:32.840 --> 03:38.160 And then I think notifications that were given to get people ample notice of the storm to 03:38.160 --> 03:41.800 get into safe locations was another part of it. 03:41.800 --> 03:49.000 But it really is a miracle that nobody to this point in time, there's no fatalities 03:49.000 --> 03:50.760 because of the storm. 03:50.760 --> 03:56.920 What is the state at week's end here of restoration of services and cleanup? 03:56.920 --> 03:58.400 Yeah. 03:58.400 --> 04:05.440 So in the city of Manasseh, we have Manasseh utilities, a local utility company, and they 04:05.440 --> 04:08.520 open a storm at a great amount of power through our community. 04:08.520 --> 04:15.920 So near downtown and throughout the site of the city, and it's going to take quite a 04:15.920 --> 04:21.880 while yet for restoration of power to be done collectively throughout the entire city, 04:21.880 --> 04:24.680 but they're making tremendous progress working very quick. 04:24.680 --> 04:29.440 So that has been very, very encouraging to see. 04:29.440 --> 04:35.040 And then right now, we're in operation of clearing debris throughout the city of Manasseh, 04:35.040 --> 04:42.040 so we've contracted contractors to come in and help our departments remove some of that 04:42.040 --> 04:43.040 debris. 04:43.040 --> 04:49.400 And earlier this week, there's a state of emergency, excuse me, declared by Governor 04:49.400 --> 04:54.160 120 Evers and what that we've activated the National Guard. 04:54.160 --> 04:58.400 We requested to activate the National Guard and was granted by the governor and National 04:58.400 --> 05:02.320 Guard are here today, and they're going to start with traffic control and things like 05:02.320 --> 05:07.480 that to help us go in more specific sections of our community. 05:07.480 --> 05:13.400 So those contractors could do that important work to remove the debris, so we're actively 05:13.400 --> 05:19.320 getting as much of the debris out as possible, utilities are working tirelessly to get power 05:19.320 --> 05:25.000 back on, and in addition to our first responders, law enforcement have just been doing an incredible 05:25.000 --> 05:31.200 job making sure people are taking care of and provided for, and I just found a ton of 05:31.200 --> 05:36.480 volunteer efforts to make sure that we're providing people and pulling shelters, places 05:36.480 --> 05:44.240 to recharge their foam, have a meal, have water, it's just all hands on deck and really collectively 05:44.240 --> 05:46.920 making sure that our community is provided for. 05:46.920 --> 05:52.160 I know you're doing all of that work, and it's early, but do you have any ballpark damage 05:52.160 --> 05:55.280 estimates yet? 05:55.280 --> 06:01.000 I don't at this time, just because the assessment is ongoing, there is a great and significant 06:01.000 --> 06:06.040 amount of damage with the assessment process, and this is continuing to progress. 06:06.040 --> 06:13.360 How long do you think it will take Manasha to recover? 06:13.360 --> 06:16.440 I think we have a long road ahead of us. 06:16.440 --> 06:22.360 I think there will be much, much work to do for days, weeks, and possibly months and 06:22.360 --> 06:23.600 some aspects of it. 06:23.600 --> 06:31.320 I mean the damage of the storm is devastating, and I can't stress enough just how much loss 06:31.320 --> 06:36.080 there has been in my heart goes out to those residents, and I see them, and I hear them 06:36.080 --> 06:41.640 hand, we're in this together, we need to take it a day at a time, but I think the important 06:41.640 --> 06:47.240 thing to know and circumstances like this is we need to do one step at a time in order 06:47.240 --> 06:48.760 to activate the next steps. 06:48.760 --> 06:53.360 So right now, making sure people are safe, making sure people have those immediate basic 06:53.360 --> 07:01.560 needs, and then making sure we have roads clear, so contractors and our crews and all 07:01.560 --> 07:06.360 of the municipalities that are coming in to help us can do that in part and work to clear 07:06.360 --> 07:12.320 out our roads, build back up our utility, and then the next phases will come in where 07:12.320 --> 07:17.000 people can get their garbage out and other things like that, so it's going to be a long 07:17.000 --> 07:18.000 road ahead of us. 07:18.000 --> 07:20.120 I anticipate many weeks yet. 07:20.120 --> 07:24.760 What does your community need most now? 07:24.760 --> 07:28.800 I think the community right now needs most. 07:28.800 --> 07:34.320 I would probably say just that being able to have the opportunity to have that work done 07:34.320 --> 07:39.520 that is so needed of removing the debris, and I would just put a mask out that people 07:39.520 --> 07:44.680 are not coming to the gawk while people are at some of the darkest moments of their life 07:44.680 --> 07:48.720 trying to clean up their home, clean up the debris, when people are coming and congesting 07:48.720 --> 07:52.640 our streets, it's making it difficult for the work that needs to be done, to be done effectively. 07:52.640 --> 07:59.080 So if you're coming to Manasha to be a helping hand, please go visit volunteer Fox City's 07:59.080 --> 08:04.280 website and that has all the volunteer opportunities there, based out of the old UWO Fox. 08:04.320 --> 08:11.320 Fox City's campus off of Midway, we would love to have you come volunteer, what we need. 08:11.320 --> 08:15.840 We need collaboration and partnership, and I would ask for people to watch the news and 08:15.840 --> 08:20.880 look at pictures that way of what has been happening in our community, but right now 08:20.880 --> 08:25.920 I would just say we really need the ability to let the work be done, that needs to be 08:25.920 --> 08:32.160 done, whether their volunteer is doing incredible work, the National Guard, our emergency management 08:32.200 --> 08:38.960 first responders, department of public works, utility company, the contract of work, the 08:38.960 --> 08:43.320 sooner all of that could happen quickly and efficiently without interruption, like worker 08:43.320 --> 08:45.160 we can kind of expedite this process. 08:45.160 --> 08:51.960 All right, Mayor Austin Hammond, thanks very much and really good luck to you. 08:51.960 --> 08:55.520 Thank you very much for having me. 08:56.520 --> 09:01.520 Have you gotten much sleep? 09:01.520 --> 09:13.600 Not a lot, no, I'm not going to much sleep, but I just, it's really difficult to know 09:13.600 --> 09:20.880 the pain that so many people are going through, and you know, it's really hard to just wrap 09:20.880 --> 09:24.840 your head around how much our community has gone through this week, but it's really 09:24.840 --> 09:29.800 encouraging at the same time, just the love that people have for each other. 09:29.800 --> 09:34.280 It's a weird moment, I guess, is what I'm trying to articulate, there's so much love 09:34.280 --> 09:37.920 and there's so much goodwill and people looking out for each other, but yeah, there's so much 09:37.920 --> 09:40.440 pain and there's so much loss. 09:40.440 --> 09:43.240 It's just kind of a weird space to be in. 09:43.240 --> 09:44.840 Yeah, yeah, for sure. 09:44.840 --> 09:48.440 Well thank you again for taking time out and talking with us. 09:48.440 --> 09:51.080 Yeah, thank you for having me, I appreciate it. 09:51.080 --> 09:53.440 Okay, all right, again, good luck. 09:53.440 --> 09:58.440 Thank you.