MILWAUKEE — Thousands of We Energies were without power for hours on Tuesday. Many of the outages happened right after a thunderstorm rolled through Southeast Wisconsin.
"What I saw inside was a big flash,” Berry Sweeting said.
A big flash of lightning is what caused this mangled mess in the Sweeting’s backyard.
"We were sitting in the living room actually talking about this tree when lightning struck the tree,” Sweeting explained.
He said it happened just after 12:30 PM on Tuesday.
This mess wasn't just in his backyard. The snapped pole and hanging wires caused an outage in the neighborhood.
This outage came at a time when temperatures were hot and the humidity was high.
Sweeting said, “It’s hot, humid, very humid outside.”
Watch: Neighbors deal with power outages during heat and storms
He was worried about the humidity inside of his home as well.
"First thing get my electricity back on because my ice cream is melting,” Sweeting said.
His neighbor Colleen Gottsacker can relate. She just went grocery shopping before the long outage.
"I just bought too much ice cream for the kids,” Gottsacker said.
The power outage came on a day when she had her grandchildren over after school.
“We stopped at the library near their school and spent a couple of hours there. Then we went to the restaurant and now I’m taking them back to their house,” Gottsacker explained.
We Energies had crews working all day to restore power for thousands. You can check here to see if the power is back on in your area.
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