Governor Scott Walker was in Outagamie County Thursday morning surveying damage from Wednesday’s severe weather. The governor said it was amazing to see how many trees the storm took down in the Hortonville area. “Hortonville was like a weedwacker came through, and trimmed all the beautiful trees that formed the archway there,” Walker said.
Walker saw damage done to Trinity Lutheran church in New London, much of which was destroyed. “The devastation looks horrendous. It looks almost total,” said Trinity’s Pastor Bil Sutlief. Sutlief said an engineer is coming in to see how stable the building is, but damage to his church is extensive. The church will host a community prayer service on Thursday evening.
Walker said he’ll do what he can to help people who are cleaning up from the storm. “We’re going to look for ways to help on speeding up debris removal,” he said, adding that bringing in the Wisconsin National Guard might be an option.
The National Weather Service said that three tornadoes caused most of the damage in the Fox Valley and northeast Wisconsin early Wednesday.
WHBY contributed to this report