Walworth County storm damage, tree smashes Geneva Township home

WALWORTH COUNTY, Wis. - Walworth County is still reeling after a storm Friday that killed three children, capsizing a boat they were in. Power restoration and storm cleanup are still underway.

Tree smashes house

What they're saying:

Lake Geneva's mayor issued a disaster declaration over the weekend. The city urges anyone who experienced storm-related damage to call 211 and report it.

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As of Monday, many people are still hauling downed branches and leaves to the curb, but few experienced damage like Kathy DeCubellis.

DeCubellis said she has lived in her Geneva Township home for 13 years. On Friday, a tree smashed right through her bedroom. She was home with her daughter and grandson picking dill in the garden when clouds rolled through. As the wind picked up, the family went inside.

DeCubellis said everyone took shelter in the basement. She felt the stairs and the house move from its foundation. Had the storm hit in the middle of the night, DeCubellis said it could have been much worse.

"I hate that this happened, but I’m thankful it was not in the middle of the night," said DeCubellis. "We would have been sleeping there. We would not be alive. The kids would have been planning a funeral."

What you can do:

A GoFundMe online fundraiser was started to help DeCubellis in the wake of the storm.

Was there an emergency alert?

What's next:

DeCubellis told FOX6 News she did not hear any alerts or get any notifications on her phone until after the storm passed. FOX6 News reached out to Walworth County Emergency Management for an explanation.

In a statement, a spokesperson said:

"Our storm sirens are connected to the National Weather Service and are activated when they send out the weather warning. The individual you spoke with is correct. The storm sirens did not go off on Friday afternoon. While the storm was moving into the county the radar indicated rotation appeared to have been weakening so the threshold was not met to activate the sirens with the information on hand. When the criteria is met, the sirens are activated based on the polygons that National Weather Service put out.

"There were severe thunderstorm warnings out, but no tornado warnings. We encourage people to have more than one notification device to ensure all areas are covered, i.e. weather radio, local weather apps, local news media etc."

Editor's note: This story was updated with a response from Walworth County Emergency Management.

Portions of this article were formatted using A.I. FOX6’s Bret Lemoine and an editor reviewed it for accuracy and tone prior to publishing.

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