Severe weekend weather causes power outages and damage to homes

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58 - August 8, 2021) - As a result of Saturday night's storms, many people experienced not only power outages, but flooding, forcing many area residents to be displaced from their homes.

"We had an evacuation center opened up in Onalaska on the western side of the state and then there were a couple of reports all throughout the state of flooding or storm damage that displaced people from their homes," said Justin Kern, the Communications Director of the American Red Cross in Wisconsin.

A duplex on N. 45th Street suffered water damage from last night's heavy rainfall pouring through the roof of the residence.

The six people in the duplex were forced to evacuate. 

This case is just one of the many incidents happening as a result of the severe weather the state has experienced this weekend.

"Our teams are providing assistance so people can have temporary shelter usually at a hotel for the next few days as well as some funds for things like meals and their basic needs," said Kern.

Flooding has been a major issue locally from the heavy rainfall.

"Looks like a lot of reports of anywhere from about two to as much as six inches of rainfall and that occurred really in a good three to four hour period during the late evening and early overnight hours," said John Gagan with the National Weather Service in Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District sent out a Water Drop Alert reminding people to use less water to reduce the risk of basement backups. They also sent an alert of a sewer overflow.

"Because the rain rates were so heavy drainage was a huge issue, a lot of water over roads and sump pumps working overtime," said Gagan.

Another issue many are facing as a result of Saturday's storms are power outages.

"Last night's storm was a lot of lightning, we had reports of about 500 lightning strikes per hour," said Brendan Conway, a spokesperson for We Energies.

We Energies says they have been responding to power outages all weekend long.

"So far we've restored power to more than 50,000 customers since Friday and we'll continue to stay out if we get more power outages tonight," Conway said. "We'll continue to work hard to get those up as quickly as possible," 

And the severe weather is not over yet.

The National Weather Service says it will continue to be an active weather period over the coming week.

"We're watching again for more than copious amounts of lightning and very heavy rainfall rates as the storms pass over and then the potential for the localized damaging winds and downburst winds with these storms," said Gagan.

The American Red Cross says if anyone requires assistance as a result of the severe weather to call them at 1-800-RED CROSS.