5 tornadoes wreak havoc on Clark County

By Valorie Brecht The evening of May 21 brought severe weather across Wisconsin, including to Clark County. The National Weather Service of La Crosse has confirmed five tornadoes in the county that evening, beginning around 7:07 p.m. and lasting until 7:37 p.m., in the areas of Globe, rural Loyal, Atwood and Unity.

The first tornado, an EF1, had estimated peak wind speeds of 105 mph.(Wind speeds must reach at least 90 mph to be classified as an EF1.) It traveled a 16.5-mile path, starting northeast of Humbird near Wildcat Mound and passing to the west of Snyder County Park, through the community of Globe, continuing north of Christie and tracking along Fairground Avenue before losing momentum.

Richard and Marge Rohde live between Greenwood and Loyal on Fairground Avenue, a couple miles south of Highway 98. Their farm was smack-dab in the path of destruction.

“We were watching this whole storm come across. And we were in the kitchen,” said Marge. “And all of a sudden it started just getting really windy and I said, ‘OK, I think we need to go to the basement.’ So we did. We literally just got down there and all of a sudden it got really windy and really started raining — you couldn’t see anything; it was just dark. And I said, ‘Oh boy, here we go.’ And something cracked. We figured something hit the house but we couldn’t see anything hit the house. But anyway, we were in the basement, couldn’t have been down there for more than five minutes.

“My husband was looking out the basement windows; he could see the doors were off the shed. But until I came up and out into the entryway, and looked out and said, ‘The barn is down’ or ‘gone’ — I can’t remember if I said ‘down’ or ‘gone’ — we didn’t realize it. I don’t think he honestly believed me at first, but I said, ‘It’s gone! It’s down!’ So it was pretty shocking.”

In addition to the barn being toppled, the other outbuildings were destroyed, including the heifer shed and the greenhouse. However, there were no animals in the barn at the time of the tornado and no injuries were reported. Also, the Rohdes’ house was spared, with “not even a shingle” ripped off.

Marge said she was sad to see much of the farm they’d put so much time and care into for 61 years destroyed. But, speaking to her the morning after the storm, she was grateful for all the help from family, friends and neighbors.

Please see Tornadoes, page 2

An EF1 tornado knocked over this silo and flattened the barn at Richard and Marge Rohde’s farm, about 2 miles south of Grassland Dairy Products on Fairground Avenue. Thankfully, no cows were in the barn and the Rohdes’ house was spared.

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTO

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“Everyone’s been great about coming to help,” she said. “That’s how it is in our area. It really is.”

The Rohdes’ neighbors Alan and Jean Bushman also had storm damage, mainly due to downed trees. They had part of a tree land on their car. They had a “little bit” of exterior damage to their house and also had an eaves trough damaged on the machine shed.

Jean echoed Marge’s words of appreciation. “We’ve had so many people coming together to help. They got it all cleared out. Our neighbors came and helped without asking. Even though they had damage of their own, they still came and helped us. We really appreciated it. It’s just unbelievable how they all came together, but that’s what it’s like in a community like ours,” she said.

Other tornados Another tornado, an EF0, touched down just north of Loyal starting at the intersection of Miller Avenue and Spencer Road, and traveling in a northeastern direction for 10 miles, crossing Rock Creek, Century, Capital and Kington roads and eventually tapering out about 3 miles outside of Riplinger. This tornado had estimated peak wind speeds of 85 mph, enough to cause substantial damage, including to the Kirk Haslow farm on Century Road, which had sections of the barn, shed and garage roofs torn off and flung into the field across the road. There were many downed power lines, among other damage.

Another EF0 twister tracked just to the southeast of the one mentioned in the previous paragraph, this one following a 2.1-mile path with estimated peak wind speeds of 80 mph. An attached garage on 153 Road was lifted off its slab, moved a few yards and set back down, crushing the truck underneath in the process.

Two other tornadoes occurred that night, an EF1 near Atwood with an estimated max wind speed of 95 mph and an EF1 in Unity with winds topping out at 105 mph.

Per the National Weather Service, the Atwood tornado “occurred on the left flank of a broad area of downburst wind damage with the tornado path intermittent in nature as the downburst mixed in at times. Multiple farmsteads were hit with damage mainly to trees and outbuildings.”

The Unity twister touched down southwest of the village, moved through the village and ended northeast of the town in Marathon County — a 4.2-mile path.

“Besides damage to trees and power lines, several homes and garages had extensive damage, especially to roofs,” the National Weather Service noted.

The damage prompted a visit from Gov. Tony Evers last Wednesday in the aftermath of the storm.

The storm left more than 25,000 Wisconsinites without power, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. In the city of Loyal, the power was out for a couple of hours the night of the storm, before it was restored to most of the city. However, the eastern part of the city did not see power restored until the following afternoon.

The east side of the city was seemingly harder hit, including a tree falling on Reuben Ehlert’s house on the corner of Beaver and First streets. There were also power lines drooped dangerously low across Beaver and East Central streets. City crews were quick to respond and put up barriers to prevent drivers from traveling down the road until the power lines could be fixed.

The May 21 tornadoes were part of what’s known as a Quasi-Linear Convective System (QLCS), a long line of powerful thunderstorms sweeping from west to east at high speeds. It’s the same type of storm which produced eight tornadoes in December 2021, including in Stanley and rural Neillsville. This recent QLCS brought storms traveling at 50 to 80 miles per hour, and created tornadoes that were veiled by heavy, driving rain.

The storms were spaced out across many miles, however. National Weather Service forecaster Kevin Scow of La Crosse told WPR it was good the storms spread out, as the individual cells had the potential to produce large and violent tornadoes like those that tore through Iowa, leaving five people dead and at least 35 injured.

“We were basically looking at a loaded gun with this event and we were just hoping it didn’t actually fire,” Scow told WPR. “Thankfully it didn’t.”

Shown above left, this 80-year-old basswood tree fell onto Reuben Ehlert’s house on the corner of Beaver and First streets in Loyal. Above right, Richard and Marge Rohde’s barn south and west of Loyal was destroyed. Below left, a tree blocked First Street in Loyal. Below right, Kirk Haslow’s farm on Century Road north of Loyal saw significant damage to outbuildings, including this shed. Bottom left, power poles are bent to the ground along Century Road north of Loyal. Bottom right, this attached garage at Dana Frost’s home north of Loyal on 153 Road was lifted up and and slammed back down.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS AND BY VALORIE BRECHT AND CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF