KAUKAUNA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Just three days ago, a now-confirmed EF-1 tornado ripped through Kaukauna, leaving behind damaged homes and debris in its path.
But even during times of devastation, there’s a silver lining: the outpouring of small-town generosity and support.
“Probably around 9, 9:05, 9:10 is when the first calls started rolling in,” says Kaukauna Fire Chief Jake Carrel. “I think first it was a powerline down and then the next call was for windows blown out of a home.”
“The tornado did it and it destroyed the garage and took the roof and my trampoline just got crushed everywhere,” says 7-year-old Ezra, as his grandparents and neighbors work to clean up their home and neighborhood.
It’s hard to miss the damage when driving through Kaukauna.
“I’d seen damage in the cemetery and I wanted to make sure that the stones of my family were all okay,” says Diane Dietzen, a resident in Kaukauna.
Headstones in the Holy Cross Cemetery are covered in massive trees and branches.
“It breaks my heart to see some of them that are, you know, underneath these fallen trees,” Diane adds. “It just breaks my heart.”
Across town, in some neighborhoods, even two days after the storm, clean-up isn’t close to being over. Especially for residents like Don Krueger.
“Damage to our garage, the roof was taken off half the garage to the rafters, our house — the living area has part of the roof removed,” he says as his home behind him is covered in tarps.
By a small miracle, Krueger and his family weren’t home when the tornado hit. They were at the grocery store when they got a call from their next-door neighbor.
It’s been a whirlwind few days for his family, but for this former cop, it’s almost a full circle moment.
“In the past, I was there usually first on scene for things, and now I’m on the other end getting help from everybody over the past years that I’ve helped in different ways too,” Krueger adds.
“It’s kind of inspiring almost if you will — neighbors helping neighbors, and everybody coming together,” says Chief Carrel. “Already, there’s still a lot of trees down and so forth but it looks so much better than it did just the other day.”
In Kaukauna, there’s no shortage of community members supporting one another.
“Everybody pitches in. We’ve gotten so many text messages, phone calls, emails saying, ‘Hey what can we do to help?’ We’ve got everything under control, there are other people that have it worse off than I do, and we’re just glad we have people like that in our community,” Krueger adds.
For those wondering about what to do with debris, city officials say to place branches and limbs on their terraces, and over the course of the next few weeks, the city will make several rounds to neighborhoods to collect them.
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