Frozen fury: Ice storms ravage Northwoods

The Northwoods was hit last weekend with a combination of freezing rain and snow.

It was a situation that resulted in, among other things such as the Hodag Dome in Rhinelander collapsing because of a backup generator malfunction, what Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) spokesman Matt Cullen told The Lakeland Times Monday was “one of the largest restoration efforts in our company’s history.”

“I’m not sure where it will rank but we do feel confident it will be among the largest in WPS history,” he said. 

Cullen reiterated that message in a press release he issued shortly after he spoke to the Times, stating power had been restored “to more than 95,000 customers affected by this weekend’s severe ice and snow storms so far.”

“An army of line workers from across the Midwest are working in the field to repair extensive damage, including snapped utility poles, downed power lines and damaged electric equipment,” he said in his press release issued late Monday afternoon. “So far, WPS has received more than 1,600 reports of significant damage.”

Cullen told the Times Monday WPS had “hundreds of line workers” working in the field “from across the Midwest.”

“In addition to our own internal crews, we have crews coming in from Minnesota and Iowa to assist us,” he said. “We also have other crews from Wisconsin that are coming up to help us in making those repairs following the extensive damage that we’ve seen.”

Scott Berschback, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Green Bay, said snowfall totals for Sunday and into Monday across Oneida and Vilas counties was between two and five inches “for much of that area.”

“Rhinelander had just under five inches,” he said. “Vilas County had some higher totals ... Boulder Junction had between five-and-a-half and seven inches. Some areas from northern Vilas County over to northern Forest and Florence counties were in the three-to-six or seven-inch range. They had the most snow.”

As for the freezing rain, Berschback said that was prevalent “more so” for areas such as Oneida County. 

“As you worked more toward northwest Vilas County, the more snow and sleet occurred,” he said. “Vilas County was kind of in that transition where it wasn’t all freezing rain.”

Berschback said there was one report of a quarter inch of freezing rain from Vilas County in Arbor Vitae. 

“I think that was the most (freezing rain) Vilas County saw,” he said. “The more significant icing was to the south and east of there.”

Amy Jewell with the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office said the dispatch center took 98 calls related to Sunday’s ice and snow, most of them reporting downed trees and tree limbs on power lines and trees or large tree limbs down on roads. 

    Tom Ryden’s 2018 Ford F-150 was damaged during Sunday’s storm when a tree limb went through the top of the vehicle’s windshield while it was parked at his business in Harshaw. “My wife parked the truck and we were off doing some other stuff,” he said. “We came back a half-hour later and that was there.” (Submitted photo)
  

Oneida County highway commissioner Alex Hegeman said the freezing rain caused some problems for his crews but “it was not as bad as what we had planned for.”

“It was definitely an event,” he said. “We went out Saturday night and salted everything to try and stay ahead of it. Once the roads got cleared up, the biggest things we had to deal with were the trees and power lines that were down. All that weight ... the trees were bent over and hanging down.”

Hegeman said overall, being able to stay ahead of the freezing rain situation ultimately made things, from his perspective, “pretty manageable” and Monday, he said there were crews out cutting trees “back a little bit to at least make travel lanes passable.”

“Especially for the larger vehicles,” he said.

Letter to Evers 

Tuesday morning, Wisconsin State Senate President Mary Felzkowski and state representatives Rob Swearingen of Rhinelander, Jeff Mursau of Crivitz and Calvin Callahan of Tomahawk sent a letter to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers requesting that he declare a state of emergency for north-central and northeastern Wisconsin “after severe storms ravaged the area over the weekend, leaving thousands without power.”

“A State of Emergency declaration would facilitate assistance to the communities most impacted by these storms and provide additional resources for response and recovery efforts,” they said in a statement. “Thousands of our constituents are still without power, which for many, means no heat or running water. More severe weather, including ice accumulation and high winds, is expected over the next 24 hours. These are incredibly dangerous conditions, and our constituents need assistance.”

In the statement, Felzkowski, Swearingen, Mursau and Callahan said the state of emergency they were seeking “will provide resources and assistance during this stressful time.”

“We hope that the Governor understands the gravity of what not having power means for Wisconsinites, especially our elderly residents, and takes action,” the statement read. 

Late Tuesday night, a press release was issued by the office of the governor. 

“Gov. Tony Evers today signed Executive Order #256, declaring a state of emergency due to severe winter weather, including heavy ice and snow, affecting large portions of the state in Northern Wisconsin,” the press release stated. 

“As Northern Wisconsin still works to recover from severe weather over the weekend, with more storms on the way tonight, this declaration will help support local efforts to restore power where there are outages, support local efforts to clear debris, set up warming shelters, and respond to local emerging needs, and keep folks, families, and communities safe,” Evers said in the press release. 

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].