Updated Friday 4:30p; 10:15a; 7:15a
Town of Yorkville---A section of Highway 45 that was closed all day Thursday, then open for several hours early Friday morning, was closed again at mid-morning Friday. The road was expected to re-open for good by noon Friday, but was still closed as of 4 p.m.
16 utility poles--some with wires still attached---were blown over onto the highway north of County 'C' as a result of the line of storms that moved through early Thursday morning. After reopening the highway in time for rush-hour traffic Friday morning, crews returned later in the morning to complete the re-stringing of wires.
Eastern Racine County took the brunt of Thursday's storm with winds estimated by the National Weather Service to be in the 60 to 70 mph range.
As of Friday morning, just a few of the thousands of We Energies customers in Racine County that lost power early Thursday were still without it.
The damage report included a metal barn on Highway V and 4 Mile Road that was demolished, and a pole barn in the Town of Raymond was knocked over. A homeowner also reportedly lost the roof of his house.
The driver of a semi had to be extricated from his cab after the trailer overturned on I-94 near 7 Mile Road as the storms passed overhead early Thursday. The driver suffered minor injuries. The trailer was empty.
Numerous trees--some as tall as 40 feet--were uprooted.
And the National Weather Service was apologizing Thursday for the failure of its automated radio station in Delafield. Officials said crews had been testing new hardware that linked the NWS office in Sullivan to the station's transmitter. That hardware failed in the heavy rains and high winds, preventing the Severe Thunderstorm Warning that had been issued at 1:42 Thursday morning from being broadcast. The old hardware has since been re-installed.
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