By Vicky Wedig
EDITOR
A storm Thursday night caused tornado-like damage in a path across Delavan, downing a barn and trees.
Delavan’s 911 center received more than 45 reports of downed trees and power lines before 8 p.m. Trees were uprooted and 15 locations reported structural damage, according to Delavan police. Devastation like this will mean power crews will be deployed to try and get residential electrics back up. Individuals may call in a Sydney electrician or one similar, for example, if the wires in their home were directly hit and they need professionals to get them working again.
The storm collapsed a barn at Ruben and Courtney Rendon’s home on County Road O South in the Town of Delavan.
Ruben Rendon and Wayne Kunke, who formerly owned the farm, continued clean-up Monday. Rendon pointed out damage to a section of woods south of the farm where the storm came through, and residents said the damage seemed to continue in a path through town.
On Second Street, across from Delbrook Golf Course, the storm downed or uprooted 14 pine trees on Michael and Joyce Cummings’ property, five fruit trees on their neighbor Jeff Goff’s property and another 18 trees in Michael Cummings’ parents’ yard.
Police Chief Tim O’Neill said in a press release that officers acted as tornado spotters in Delavan and Darien and reported no rotation in the cloud formations. O’Neill confirmed that observation with National Weather Service meteorologist Rusty Kapela, who said the Delavan area experienced a “microburst with no tornadic activity.” The National Weather Service issued no tornado warnings, and no one was injured in the storm, O’Neill said.
O’Neill said the majority of the damage in the City of Delavan was in an area bordered by Fourth Street to the west, Eighth Street to the east, Creekside Plaza on the south and the north city limits in the Laurel Heights subdivision.
Joyce Cummings said she and her husband were trying to make it home before the storm hit and saw an electrical wire with a branch across it arching and smoking at Second Street and Interstate 43. They arrived home at about 8 p.m. and had no electricity.
“Everything was already hit before we got there,” Cummings said.
O’Neill said Alliant Energy crews worked through Thursday night to restore power, which was out in the Fifth, Sixth and Eighth street areas. Laurel Heights remained without power at noon Friday.
“We’re overwhelmed with the destruction,” said Cummings. “It was a shock to us.”
