Significant Damage Left In Wake of Late May Severe Storms

Tuesday evening, May 21, 2024 at approximately 8PM a powerful weather front bringing severe thunderstorms including heavy rain and high winds moved across the Northlands, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a tornado warning for Marathon County, soon followed by a tornado warning including Lincoln County.

While Merrill was spared the brunt of the storm’s rage, straight line winds still packed a punch as the storm left its mark on the local region. Damage included up-rooted and snapped off trees, telephone poles and signs leaving a number of local residents without power. There were significant outages in Merrill’s Sixth Ward and other areas of the city and surrounding area. Included were Gleason, Irma, and the town of Pine River both east and west of the Merrill.

Wisconsin Public Service reported that “Tuesday evening’s storms caused power outages that affected approximately 2,400 customers in the Merrill area.” Power was restored to about half of those customers by Wednesday afternoon, with the remainder getting their power back on Thursday.

St. John Lutheran School had to cancel classes both Wednesday and Thursday as they were still without power, forcing them to reschedule their final day of school to Friday, May 23.

Northwest of Edgar, an EF-1 tornado touched down leaving a trail of destruction, including at least one collapsed barn where most of the cattle were able to be rescued because the efforts of family and neighbors. There were also destroyed silos, sheds and outbuildings. The area was also affected by power outages.

The EF-1 twister was one of 5 tornadoes reported in the state that night.