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Ripon community comes together in cleanup, following storms


Ripon community comes together in cleanup, following storms, July 30, 2021 (WLUK/Chris Schattl)
Ripon community comes together in cleanup, following storms, July 30, 2021 (WLUK/Chris Schattl)
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Ripon, Wis. (WLUK) -- Severe storms rolled through Ripon, hitting the city hard.

In their wake, they left a mess for residents, business owners and city workers to clean up.

Jackson street is one of the streets that had significant damage, but at least the power was back on, as of Friday. Residents were told it wouldn’t be up and running again until late Friday evening, but they say it was turned on around 11:30 a.m.

“I thought, well, this is going to take time!” Sue Kamphuise of Ripon said.

Debris, brush, downed power lines and trees blanketed Jackson St.

The aftermath of the storms kept residents, like Kamphuise, busy all day. Her neighbor’s giant tree came crashing down on her garage.

“I told them, ‘You have two trees down – one’s in your front yard and one’s in your backyard on my garage!” she said. “It could’ve been a lot worse, if the winds were blowing differently, so we gotta count our blessings.”

Kamphuise had plenty of helping hands, as was the case with many people who got the brunt of the storm.

“We had so many friends that came out to help us all yesterday doing cleanup,” said Alexandria Games owners Patrick and Lauren McConnell. “Customers came and helped us do cleanup, former coworkers, family, just, you know, the support has beenthe gratitude we feel, it’s hard to speak to.”

The Mconnells own Alexandria Games in Ripon’s downtown.

Wednesday’s overnight storms, with extreme high winds, shattered all the glass panels on the outside of their store, causing water to pour inside, ruining a lot of their inventory and forcing the couple to use a whole lot of elbow grease.

“A lot of wet boxes, push brooms, glass,” they said. “Making sure that we could clear the street and the side walk, so if pedestrians or cars were driving, they weren’t cutting up their tires or themselves.

The owners just opened their store about four months ago.

But, even with all they’ve lost, they still remain positive.

“Our family motto, and now our store motto is the same as the state motto, which is “Forward,” The McConnells said. “We’re just gonna move forward.”

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