Here & Now

Mayor Austin Hammond on Damage by a Tornado Hitting Menasha

Frederica Freyberg:
A devastating EF3 tornado with winds up to 140mph hit the Appleton area on Monday. It leaves people without power under boil water advisories, curfews and pleas to shelter in place to keep roads clear. People are in shelters as donations pour in, all as communities try to pick up the pieces of their homes and lives. This week, Governor Tony Evers declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard to ensure every available resource is deployed in response. The city of Menasha took a direct hit from the tornado as it moved south from Appleton. Menasha Mayor Austin Hammond joins us now. Mayor, thanks very much for being here.

Austin Hammond:
Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:
How are you and your city doing right now?

Austin Hammond:
We’re doing all right. There is a huge influx of helping hands over the last couple of days. We have a great volunteer operation happening at the former UW-O Fox Cities campus and Volunteer Fox Cities is running that. And yesterday alone, we had 1200 volunteers, which has been incredible. And we’ve been blessed by neighboring municipalities coming to help us, neighboring utility companies. But the damage from the storm is remarkably significant. People have lost their homes. People have lost their businesses, public infrastructure, power out. Our water plants were hit, and we’re reliant on the city of Neenah to help us do that. And as was mentioned earlier, some of the areas of water service are under a water boil advisory right now. So it’s been a difficult and challenging and trying week for folks here in the city of Menasha are strong and resilient and are making the most of it. So even in the most darkest and difficult moments, people are choosing to look out for each other and find ways to lift each other up. And it’s also been incredible to see the public sector, private sector, faith communities all come together to uplift our community. So it’s really been truly incredible to see people come together in this really difficult moment. But it’s incredibly sad how much damage has happened due to this storm.

Frederica Freyberg:
So despite this enormous property damage, how surprising is it that no one was killed?

Austin Hammond:
I mean, it’s a miracle. It’s truly remarkable. I think some of it has to do with time of day in the middle of the week. Thankfully, many folks were at work. And then I think notifications that were given to give people ample notice of the storm to get into safe locations is another part of it. But it really is a miracle that nobody to this point in time, there’s no fatalities because of the storm.

Frederica Freyberg:
What is the state at week’s end here of restoration of services and cleanup?

Austin Hammond:
Yeah. So our — in the city of Menasha, we have Menasha Utilities, a local utility company and they have been restoring a great amount of power throughout our community, so near our downtown and the furthest side of the city. And it’s going to take quite a while yet for restoration of power to be done collectively throughout the entire city. But they’re making tremendous progress working very quick. So, that has been very, very encouraging to see. And then right now we’re in operation of clearing debris throughout the city of Menasha. So we’ve contracted contractors to come in and help our departments remove some of that debris. And National Guard are here today, and they’re going to start with traffic control and things like that to help us go in more specific sections of our community so those contractors can do that important work to remove the debris. So we’re actively getting as much of the debris out as possible. Utilities are working tirelessly to get power back on. And in addition to our first responders, law enforcement have just been doing an incredible job, making sure people are taken care of and provided for. And it’s just been a ton of volunteer efforts to make sure that we’re providing people with cooling shelters, places to recharge their phone, have a meal, have water. It’s just all hands on deck and really collectively making sure that our community is provided for.

Frederica Freyberg:
What does your community need most now?

Austin Hammond:
I think the community right now needs most I would probably say just to be able to have the opportunity to have that work done that is so needed of removing the debris. And I would just put an ask out that people are not coming to gawk while people are in some of the darkest moments of their life trying to clean up their home, clean up the debris. When people are coming and congesting our streets, it’s making it difficult for the work that needs to be done to be done effectively. So if you’re coming to Menasha to be a helping hand, please go visit Volunteer Fox Cities website and it has all of the volunteer opportunities there based out of the old UW-Fox Cities campus off of midway. We would love to have you come volunteer. But we need collaboration and partnership and I would ask for people to watch the news and look at pictures that way of what has been happening in our community. But right now, I would just say we really need the ability to let the work be done that needs to be done, whether it’s our volunteers doing incredible work, the National Guard, our emergency management, first responders, Department of Public Works, utility company, the contracted work, the sooner all of that can happen quickly and efficiently without interruption, the quicker we can kind of expedite this process.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right, Mayor Austin Hammond, thanks very much and really good luck to you.

Austin Hammond:
Thank you very much for having me.