High winds knock out power for more than 75,000 We Energies customers across Wisconsin
MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. (CBS 58) -- High winds gusting constantly Friday knocked out power for more than 75,000 We Energies customers across Wisconsin.
One of those customers was the B-52 Restaurant in Menomonee Falls, where the lot is typically full on a Friday afternoon in March.
However, those coming in during the lunch hour for a fish fry, corned beef and cabbage, or the main attraction of gyros, were met with disappointing news.
Jeannine Monfre, a longtime employee of the restaurant, said the power cut out in an instant during the middle of the lunch rush.
"All of a sudden - I think it's the wind - all of a sudden, it as just 'click' and we're done at 12:28," Monfre said. "And here we sit."
At noon Friday, We Energies' outage map showed about 11,000 customers without power across the state. By 4 p.m., that number had shot up to more than 75,000 outages.
Brendan Conway, a spokesman for the utility company, said prolonged wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour were too much for crews to keep up with Friday afternoon.
"We had a really good handle on it through the morning," Conway said. "But we had some wind gusts just burst through the state between 11 and noon, and we just saw our outages go way up."
Conway said, in some ways, it's harder for crews to keep up with outages like the ones that kept popping up Friday than it is to organize a response to widespread damage after a large storm.
"This one's different because it's like a bunch of small storms are going through constantly," Conway said.
While crews weathered those small storms, Monfre, and tens of thousands of other homes and businesses, waited for the lights to come back on.
"The sooner, the better," she said. "Because we just have to- we gotta pay our people, too."
The high winds affected schools across southeast Wisconsin Friday. The Hamilton School District confirmed Silver Spring Intermediate School was closed because it lost power.
In Racine County, the Burlington Area School District confirmed bus drivers encountered obstacles taking students to school. The high winds knocked power lines across the road on some of the bus routes.
That was just some of the widespread wind damage Friday.
Track the We Energies Outage Map HERE
The Sheboygan Fire Department secured a stretch of S. 8th Street near the Sheboygan River after high winds sheared off a portion of a commercial building's roof.
High winds peeled off a portion of a building's roof in Sheboygan Friday.
"Emergency crews will continue to monitor conditions and will reassess the area once winds subside to determine when it is safe to reopen the roundabout," Asst. Fire Chief Michael Lubbert said in a press release.
In New Berlin, more than 500 customers had their power knocked out in the subdivision near Sunnyslope Road and Greenfield Avenue.
In Greendale, CBS 58 viewer Jesi Bartz shared video of a tree that appears to have been uprooted by the strong winds.
In Franklin, a viewer shared a photo of a trampoline that was damaged from the wind.
In Milwaukee near 25th and West Michigan, a FedEx truck was damaged by a downed tree.
In Milwaukee, a resident Albert Hill says a home he's been renovating along Locust for six months collapsed from the wind, hitting his neighbor's home.
"I was in disbelief that this is what I'm going through right now," said Hill. "I was just totally devastated to see something like this happen."
We Energies says they hope to restore power to everyone across the state by Sunday.
Meantime, Wisconsin is expecting a wallop of snowfall Sunday into Monday. Keep track of the forecast on-air and download our CBS 58 Weather App to get real-time updates. Learn more HERE.