Snowfall of more than six inches and up to a foot in some areas combined with 50 mph winds contributed to a white mess across the Shawano County area April 2-3.
Power outages were common.
“It was very widespread around the city, and most parts of the city were impacted,” said Bruce Gomm, Shawano Municipal Utilities general manager. “It was a pretty significant event for power outages.”
Thousands of area We Energies customers were also without power due to the storm.
Either the high winds blew trees and branches onto the power lines, or the heavy snow caused branches to break and fall onto the lines.
“The weight of the wet snow was more than the trees could bear, and they either fell on the high voltage line and caused the whole circuit to trip out, or they fell on individual lines and ripped them out, causing problems with secondary services,” Gomm said.
On the morning of April 4, more than 13,000 We Energies customers from Gillett to Waupaca to Appleton remained without power. That included nearly 2,000 in Seymour.
So many were still left without power the night of April 3 that the Shawano County Red Cross set up an overnight warming shelter at Shawano Community Middle School for those who needed a warm place to spend the night.
No one took advantage of the shelter, but the FACE Center in Keshena remained open.
Sheriff George Lenzner said his officers and dispatchers were kept very busy.
“Between the hours of 5 p.m. and midnight (April 2), dispatch received 206 inbound phone calls, had to make 87 outbound phone calls and started 136 total incidents for service,” he said. “Every law enforcement, fire or EMS call in our county goes through our dispatch center, and we cannot thank these four (dispatchers) enough for ‘weathering the storm’ behind the scenes.”
The severe weather led to dozens of school, business and community events being postponed or canceled.
The family of Justin Dickenson, along with the Menominee Tribal Police Department, canceled a planned April 5 search for him.
Originally planned for March 29, it was postponed to April 5 due to the weather and has now been postponed again, this time with a new date yet to be determined.
Dickenson, 36, was last seen Feb. 11, 2022, in Bowler.
The Shawano Speedway Fan Fest, originally set for April 6, was canceled due to the parking lots being a mess from the snow and rain.
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
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