Deputies Working to Help FDL County Cleanup Efforts

Fond du Lac County is working on cleaning up after a State of Emergency was declared by state and local officials following Tuesday’s storm. The Sheriff’s Office is helping out with blocking streets or responding to other issues that may be popping up. 

Captain Ryan Waldschmidt tells us turning the lights back on is high on their list of priorities. He says “the goal is to get the roads opened up, get the roads free of debris and trees – get the power lines that are on the ground back up, restring those power lines, then re-energize them so we get power back to residences. And we’ll continue to do that – there are certainly still a lot of people without power on both ends of the county, east and west.”

Waldschmidt adds that there are concerns for after-the-fact injuries to people cleaning up the mess, looking at “things like injuries from chainsaws or trees and branches falling on people that are working to clear debris. So you get those secondary-type injuries after the storm, so we want to keep people safe that are working in those areas. And then as they turn power back on, there are concerns with gas leaks.”

He also says deputies were rolling around the county during the storm to deal with emergencies, as “we had multiple calls of people that were trapped in vehicles that had
trees that had fallen on the car, so those types of emergencies. We had
significant structural damage with people in and around buildings that were
collapsed. So getting to those people, making sure everybody was accounted
for.”

National Weather Service surveyors believe an EF-1 category tornado spun through the Waupun and Alto area. Waldschmidt adds that there was also serious damage in the eastern part of the county – near Armstrong and Dundee.