Sauk, Columbia counties spared from major damage, outages in Tuesday storms that hit Madison, Iowa hard (2024)

A major storm system slammed the upper Midwest on Tuesday night, and while areas north of Madison were largely spared from significant damage, there were numerous power outages.

Other areas were not so lucky. Roughly 42,000 people in Madison were without power as a result of the storm, with nearly 14,000 still experiencing outages on Wednesday morning. The outages were the most widespread since the Great Ice Storm of 1976, according to Madison Gas and Electric.

A tornado from the storm system caused multiple fatalities in Greenfield, Iowa, on Tuesday night. The National Weather Service reported one tornado sighting in Wisconsin west of Wausau. No tornadoes were reported in Madison or the surrounding area but warning sirens were activated in Wisconsin Dells and Baraboo.

The severe thunderstorms, which were on and off throughout Tuesday but were particularly strong during the evening, brought between 1.5 and 3.2 inches of rain to south central Wisconsin, according to the National Weather Service. Power outages were reported throughout the region, with a large swath of them in eastern Sauk County north of Merrimac and east of Baraboo.

Sauk County emergency management director Jed Seidl said the county is assessing impacts of the storm. He said damage was reported in Lake Delton, Baraboo, Sauk City, Spring Green, Plain and Merrimac.

As of Wednesday morning, the department was assessing damage throughout the county, Seidl said, adding that most reports were of downed trees, blocked roads and power outages. He said there is suspected damage to four homes and three vehicles, but those reports were not confirmed.

No serious injuries nor requests for emergency shelter were reported to his department.

Baraboo public works director/interim co-administrator Tom Pinion said Baraboo Area Fire and EMS District set up an emergency dispatch center in conjunction with the city’s public works and police departments. The center was used as an emergency shelter by default, he added, saying that a few residents went there to “wait out the storm.”

As of Wednesday morning, Alliant Energy data indicated that nine customers on the north side of Baraboo were without power. The east end of Sauk County was significantly affected, according to the data, with more than 200 customers losing power from the storms. Sauk Prairie had 22 reported outages.

The Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton area were largely spared from significant storm impact, according to public works directors Chris Tollaksen in Wisconsin Dells and Jason Puttkamer in Lake Delton.

Puttkamer added that lightning strikes caused communication issues with some lift and water stations in the village. Those issues were addressed by Wednesday morning and did not cause significant problems, he said.

“We were actually very fortunate compared to communities to our south,” Puttkamer said.

Tollaksen said one power outage was reported to his department on the west side of Wisconsin Dells. A downed tree on River Road caused temporary outages as well, he said, adding that city crews cleared the tree.

“All in all, the city did not have significant issues due to the storm last night,” he said.

Portage utilities manager Jerad Royal said the storm caused minimal damage in the city, reporting just a relay switch burn out at a lift station which was resolved later Tuesday night.

City Fire Chief Troy Haase said the Portage Fire Department received about six calls for downed trees or power lines. He added that the most significant call was for a home outside the city in which an electric meter was torn off the house. No significant impacts came from that, he added.

Portage Daily Register reporter Nicholas Walczak contributed to this report.