Walworth County cleaning up damage after Wednesday night storms

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WALWORTH COUNTY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Powerful storms roared through Wisconsin Wednesday night, leaving trees and power lines down in the southeastern part of the state.

Walworth County got hit especially hard. 

Charles Steffen woke up Thursday morning to a yard full of branches and multiple trees down on his property.

His girlfriend, Nicole Janssen, says it's scary thinking just how close the trees came to hitting their house where they live with their two small children. "It was around 3:30 this morning, I heard a loud crash," she said. "I kind of thought there was a tornado going on. We saw this tree down, and then Charles walked around and seen them by our fire pit, another tree fell down and took down our fence. It's a big mess."

They say it's going to take a lot of teamwork to get their yard back to normal.

"We were actually talking last week we needed firewood," Charles said. "I guess there's a blessing in disguise."

On the other side of town, Patti Corey was also hard at work cleaning up her property. "It's one of those like, well...let's get the tractor, and the chainsaw, and the rake and just start picking away at it," she said. "Today is a good day to burn because it's wet and this is an open area where I'm away from things."

Alliant Energy said nearly 8,000 people lost power. Patti was prepared, but others called in for a little help.

"I heard the storms last night, didn't think much of it, and then the phones started going right around 6 a.m.," said Matthew Wingate, owner of Tree Guys. "Ever since then, I mean we've just been booking work left and right."

Matthew says they worked nonstop all day Thursday. "A lot of trees on homes, and cars, and various structures, so it's been a little hectic," he said.

According to the Walworth County Sheriff's Office, they've had 47 reports of trees down in the area, but luckily no injuries or deaths.

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