MILWAUKEE — The sound of chainsaws could be heard across southeastern Wisconsin as people tried to clean up from Tuesday night’s storm. Many waited for city crews to come by and chop up very large trees sitting in the roadway.
Bruce Words Sr.’s van was damaged by falling tree limbs.
“The wind just all of a sudden picked up, the rain was going crazy. All of a sudden I heard this big bang, crash,” he said. Because it sits between the sidewalk and the street, the tree that came down belongs to the city, Words Sr. says.
In Whitefish Bay, Department of Public Works crews have been working through the night to clean up damage and debris. Resident Chelsea Montague says chainsaws were in use cutting up a large tree in front of her home into the early morning hours.
“We were actually on the front porch and the winds started to blow, and we said, 'boys this is a big storm, it’s time to come inside.' As soon as we went in, we saw a branch fall from this big tree and then through the front windows. We saw the tree come straight down into the neighbor's yard,” she said.
Whitefish Bay DPW says on its website crews will continue to travel the village and look for debris and chop up tree limps. Milwaukee’s DPW says they had nearly 1,000 calls for service as of noon Wednesday, and had only been able to respond to about 5% to 10% of this in that same time period.
