Wisconsin storm damage, power outages on hot Tuesday

PORT WASHINGTON, Wis. - Thousands of people across southeast Wisconsin were without power after a Tuesday afternoon storm, and it was a tough day to be without air conditioning. 

"The power went out and my thought was, ‘Here we go again,’" said Jacqueline Sweeting.

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What started as a calm afternoon for Sweeting and her husband quickly turned into chaos. Lightning struck a tree in her Milwaukee backyard and brought a power line down with it.

"It got dark, and the wind was blowing. My husband saw a spark," she said.

Tree damaged in Jacqueline Sweeting backyard

Sweeting and her neighbors are just some of the thousands of people who lost power during Tuesday's storm. Kathryn Yarbough waited for crews to restore her electricity on a terrible day to lose it.

"It was like a big bang, then all of a sudden the lights flickered and went off," she said. "I mean it’s getting to the point where I can’t even go into the house – it’s stifling."

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We Energies at work

Brendan Conway, a We Energies spokesperson, said roughly 20,000 people lost power during the storm. 

"It’s only been a few hours since it hit, we’ve restored power already for thousands of customers," he said. "Ozaukee, Washington and parts of Milwaukee County. That’s really the areas that were hit."

We Energies crew works to restore power after storm

Port Washington High School had to cancel events due to an outage. Some businesses briefly closed, too.  Conway said We Energies crews will keep at it until everyone's lights and air conditioning units are back on.

"We are getting power back on as quickly as we normally do," he said. "When its hot it’s a little tougher, we understand – but also understand our crews are out in this weather working."

Conway said, as of now, it's unclear when all power will be restored. He urges people to check the We Energies Outage Map and report outages as needed.