Tornado struck around midnight: Verona one of the hardest hit by powerful storms

VERONA (WITI) -- Verona near Madison in Dane County was one of the worst hit as powerful storms moved through southern Wisconsin overnight Monday, June 16th into Tuesday, June 17th. The National Weather Service has confirmed a tornado touched down around midnight.

The National Weather Service says the tornado touched down on the northwest side of Verona around 12:10 a.m.

A Tornado Warning was issued for Verona at 11:51 p.m.

The National Weather Service says this tornado has been rated a low-end EF3 -- with estimated wind speeds of 140 miles-per-hour.

The tornado touched down near the County View Elementary School -- which was significantly damaged.

More than a dozen homes in Verona are considered uninhabitable due to storm damage.

Barricades have been set up in Verona neighborhoods keeping anyone but residents out.

But on Tuesday afternoon, the County Executive took a FOX6 News crew past the barricades for an up close look at the damage.

Neighbors in Verona say it was a long Monday night!

Emergency sirens woke families in Verona just after midnight.

"We knew it was serious. A lot of wind and there was a lot of lightning and thunder," Jeaneen Dau said.

Parents gathered their kids and headed for the basement.

"There was a little panic, especially with the little ones because we had to wake them out of a dead sleep," Dau said.

When the sun rose, residents could see the full extent of the damage.

Garages collapsed, roofs were blown off, trees were down, and debris was scattered everywhere.

"We have in between 15 and 30 structures that have been damaged -- some significantly," Verona Police Lt. David Dresser said.

In one neighborhood, 19 homes are considered uninhabitable.

The area has been cordoned off by law enforcement.

"That is because there are hazards out there. We still have power lines that are down," Lt. Dresser said.

Dane County Executive Joe Parisi says the National Weather Service was set to evaluate the damage on Tuesday.

In the meantime, he has declared a state of emergency.

"This is something that is necessary to do to hopefully qualify us for state emergency relief funds," Parisi said.

County officials are assessing damage to determine the storm's cost.

At Country View Elementary School, crews were already at work Tuesday afternoon repairing the roof.

Dean Gorrell, the Superintendent of the Verona Area School District tells FOX6 News the school sustained significant damage -- particularly to the northwest portion of the building.

The roof collapsed over three classrooms in that area of the building, and a wall was blown out of another classroom.

There is collateral water damage to the west side of the building.

Gorrell says it is believed that the roof will have to be completely replaced.

Estimates are between $3 million and $4 million in repairs.

Gorrell says the goal is to have the building open for students on September 2nd.

"We set up a shelter here the Baptist church -- opened up provided to shelter to families hit the hardest," Verona Police Chief Bernie Coughlin said.

The shelter has been set up at the Memorial Baptist Church.

The Salvation Army was on hand to help Verona residents and first responders.

Jeaneen Dau lives in nearby Madison, and spent a long night in her basement.

"We are out of power and we've been out of pwoer now for 13 hours. Once we got down (to the basement) we prayed and everything was good," Dau said.

Law enforcement officials went door-to-door in Verona during the night -- doing welfare checks.

Meloney Linder was busy Tuesday cleaning up the mess left behind.

"Before living here, I lived in south Texas, and we had been through two hurricanes there. This was worse. There was a picnic table that was picked up and put through a second floor. Our neighbor across the way was comign down the stairs as his roof was coming off," Linder said.

Linder's tree was uprooted by the estimated 140 mph winds. It took part of her garage and roof -- but everything can be replaced.

"So many people have had a worse situation than we have," Linder said.

"As long as everyone is safe and here and walking around -- that's the important part," one Verona resident said.

There are no reports of any injuries.

Crews were working Tuesday to restore power to customers experiencing an outage.