Tornado warnings for parts of Milwaukee, Waukesha and Washington counties expired Tuesday after severe storms capable of producing tornadoes moved through southeastern Wisconsin, but the danger had not fully passed for tens of thousands of people. As of 10 p.m., 40,085 We Energies customers were still without power.
Adrienne Davis, a general assignment and breaking news reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, reported that the outages were spread across the area. Milwaukee County had 22,578 customers without service, Waukesha County had 11,318 and Washington County had 2,477, a reminder that the warning may have ended while the cleanup was still catching up.
The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for central Milwaukee County until 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 18 and another for central and southern Waukesha County until 7:15 p.m. A tornado warning means a tornado is imminent or has already touched down, while a tornado watch only means conditions are primed for one to form.
During the warnings, the weather service warned that flying debris could be dangerous and that roofs, windows, vehicles and trees could be damaged. It told people in warning areas to get to a basement or the lowest floor of a building, put as many walls between themselves and the outside as possible and avoid windows. Drivers were told not to try to outrun a tornado on highways and to seek a sturdy building if they could not get out of the danger zone in time.
What remained unanswered late Tuesday was whether any tornado had actually touched down in southeastern Wisconsin. The warnings were gone, but the outages were not, and that left the next phase of the storm story focused on restoration rather than the storm itself.
