Whipping winds leave a trail of damage across southeastern Wisconsin.
Strong winds swept through our viewing area Monday night with gusts recorded up to 60 miles per hour at Mitchell International. A wind advisory carried throughout Tuesday as plenty were left cleaning up the mess.
When you think of December in Wisconsin, snow often comes to mind. Mother Nature had other plans in Port Washington Monday night. Terry Seland of Bravo Antiques works inside Shoppes of Port Washington. He woke up to a call in the morning all about the wind. A 50 foot long blue awning outside his store came tumbling to the ground in the middle of the night after strong wind gusts.
“I was surprised,” he said. "It's our trademark, ‘Shoppes of Port Washington’ is imprinted on the front of it at a couple different places and that's how we're identified around town here as the big blue awning.”
Down in the greater Milwaukee area, strong winds were to blame for downed trees and power outages. We Energies says 9,000 customers had their lights go out overnight across southeastern Wisconsin.
For those who make a living on the road were in for a wild ride.
"I'm empty so it's not fun," said trucker Keith Hoiden. "It will blow you in the other lane, it's happened a couple times. You've got to keep both hands on the steering wheel.”
Back in Port Washington, Seland is happy the large awning didn't come down during the day when customers constantly flow through.
"It could have been a tragedy really," he said. "Being here in Port Washington, we get quite a bit of wind off the lake and it's been pretty secure over the years. So it must have been a freak gust that took it off of there."
