Sounds like major damage...

Just got home after a couple days of cleanup. I got up there Thursday night - my parents had driven up the day before and spent all day just clearing the driveway. I fired up the chainsaw Friday morning at 6:00 AM, and by the end of the day, with the help of our next door neighbors and their huge crew of family and friends and an ATV and trailer borrowed from another neighbor down the road, we had removed most of the trees from the two yards and piled them along the road. We left a few big ones for the professionals, and there's still quite a bit to be done on the point, but I did manage to thread the trailer through the brush piles and get out on the water for a few hours Saturday evening to take pictures of some of the damaged campsites and islands.

Trying to look on the bright side, the worst areas are absolutely devastated, but the damage is somewhat confined - in some spots you can look at one shoreline and everything is flattened, but when you turn around the opposite shoreline looks just fine. Driving up Flowage Road, you don't really start to see the damage until you get near Springstead Landing. And after seeing some of the campsites and homes that suffered the most damage, it's a miracle that there weren't more injuries. I also didn't see as much debris floating in the water as I expected, and in several areas many of the downed trees fell along steep shorelines where they should provide good fish habitat for years to come.

Water is just about at full pool, -0.1 feet according to the Springstead Landing gauge. Surface temperature is at 76 degrees and the water is very stained but not unusually turbid, with visibility at about 2 feet on my completely unscientific orange bucktail scale. Thanks to the low water earlier in the season, I saw weeds reaching the surface in as much as 12' of water, something I've never seen before. It creates an interesting question - target the usual depths, or the usual spots? I wasn't out long enough to answer that one, but I did fish for a couple hours and managed to land a northern and a nice smallie on a bucktail.

Quality on some of this batch isn't up to my usual standards - I was experimenting with in-camera contrast settings and didn't like the results.

http://picasaweb.google.com/BlueRang...nadoAftermath#

Got up to my shack on the Roddis LIne Rd. Maybe 2 miles north on the Roddis line you come to an area that has massive dammage, big thanks to the Town of Agenda for once again opening the road. It is an area of about 1 mile long where the tornado came through, lots of damage. Nothing after that one mile stretch of road. Just looking at it I thought it was a tornado . Well defined line of damage. Time moves on. Sorry to hear about the damage to Porkys home at Donners Bay. I am sure he has resources to get it fixed ASAP. Nice report from Flambeau Vista, thanks.

Well it looks like we'll have to have a new roof and structural damage too (four trees on it). There is about a dozen trees down on our property. Our 200 amp service was ripped off the building. Fluffy is missing most of her lawn ordainments. Canopy cover for the boat lift is taters, screen tent is shot, large lawn swing is crushed, TV antenna is broke in half, too numerous to name it all. Been cleaning up down trees for four days and we're only a quarter through. Had lots of family and friends helping.

I want to thank all of you for your help,

It refreshed my feeble memory that we camped on C6 a few weeks back and not C12. Wouldn't have enjoyed either site during that storm!
Lips

Tiny:

Offered before will offer again, you need any chain saw help??? PM me if you like...

Mark

While cruising around on the tff yesterday I stopped at sites c15, d33, c17, c8, and b2 which were all pretty much trashed with fallen or uprooted trees. I think c8 was probably the worst. I am curious to know what will be done with sites that are in this condition? Are professionals coming in to handle it or can someone be contacted to find out if assistance is needed? I would be glad to help out on my favorite body of water.

The Sites that are open or closed are listed.

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/facilities/turtleflambeau/

Does anyone know if Mark Uebelher's cottage is OK?

t Nash

Does anyone have photos of the destroyed campsites they can post? I always planned to duck under a picnic table is things got nasty. One of the early reports mentioned some of those were damaged too. Just wondering how bad they are.

does anyone know about the stand of pines along the trail between fishermans landing and the bog around the corner from it? i proposed to my wife in those trees 6 years ago and wondered if they are still standing. we were also camped at c8 that year, which sounds like the hardest hit site. we love it up there and understand things always change, considering that this change is a very drastic one. i envy all you guys that live or have a place up there, no matter how damaged, never take it for granted.

Hi all, per a recent request...attached is a first hand pic of how the table at C11 saved 4 of our lives... I just got out of St. Joe's hospital and am very happy to "only" be recovering from a fractured pelvis. I can't say enough about the quick response of the rescue crews that got to us within 45 minutes - I thought it would be hours - and got us over to Minocqua. My wife had a heart attack after we got there and probably would have not made it if we hadn't been at the ER already. We have a lot of people to thank, and intend to do so profusely.

I have a disk of pics and clips that our friends made while cleaning up the site on Wednesday, and I'll post some when I'm able.

Hope everyone out there is doing well with their recoveries and property damage.

Larrynrita

That's a gripping pic Larrynrita. Glad to hear you're going to make a recovery. I weathered a severe thunderstorm on C13 two years ago. We didn't even bother to check the weather radio when it started getting nasty. Guess I was lucky it wasn't anymore than a windy/rainy thunderstorm. My friends had gone to the launch to meet a couple others who had just arrived when it got bad. They weathered the storm in the truck and I took shelter in the tent. My buddy's dog took off and must have found a dry place under a pine :) Other than spending most of Saturday drying things out by the fire, we were fine.

I'm going to be investing in a weather radio before our trip next week. Can anyone confirm how bad the damage is on Long Island...specifically to C13? Also with all the rain is there any beach exposed at Swimmer's Island? Never been there when it's been anywhere near full pool.

I have pictures of each site by long island except for c13, that one didn't look bad from a distance. I am unable to upload the pictures from my phone but can email them to someone to post if they want??

first pic is what is left of pine island over in horseshoe. The campground pics are over in the chanel by horseshoe. They are destroyed. The patch of trees over by fishermans is pretty much ok. The campsites over between hotdog island and dollar island are wiped out. Swimmers looks fine but water is very high..can't see sand. Lots of trouble navigating around because it all looks different now. Many islands are simply just a few trees left on them and really look like they were mowed over with trees just snapped off and laying in the water..can you say fish cribs in 2 years? Good to hear campers doing better. Wow..what a picture. Cleanup doing better in springstead area with owners getting used to seeing the destruction. First couple days spent just being numb to it all. On a brighter note, fishing is great. Walleye and smallmouth being caught..with empty bellies. Go figure. Getting down into the 40's tonight..feels great. Other picture taken from news station, but not sure how accurate. Also, horseshoe bog split in two. One half floated into the back bay there and the other half floated back toward end of flowage by big rocks. WOW. Attachment 11037

Attachment 11034

Attachment 11035

Attachment 11036

Here are Muskyeye's photos:

http://tinypic.com/r/2j17ukm/4
B2

http://i36.tinypic.com/5nrv53.jpg
B2 site - There are 3 uprooted trees near the big firepit.

http://i37.tinypic.com/2m3ljdy.jpg
C8

http://i34.tinypic.com/dvnjnl.jpg
C12 southern tip of the island this site is on, site might be further to the left than what the picture shows.

http://i36.tinypic.com/deqmx1.jpg
C15 is in the channel by long island- it is on the east side of the island.

http://i37.tinypic.com/11vl64g.jpg
C16 is the site on the southern part of long island.

http://i37.tinypic.com/aac878.jpg

http://i34.tinypic.com/15s27q0.jpg

C17 is the site as the exit the channel heading towards big island. West side of long island.

http://i35.tinypic.com/ibvoz9.jpg
Channel is looking through the channel on long island facing west.

Larrynrita glad you made it throught the storm. I wish you and anyone else injured a speedy recovery! Thanks to Blue Ranger for the photos he posted too. Pretty amazing stuff!

Thanks all for the good wishes. We drove out to the Springstead landing Sun nite, and were amazed at the damages. We really felt bad for everyone that got hit so hard, it was unsettling to us! Attached are pics of C11 the day after, we had 4 people and a 50-lb dog under and around one side of the table.... here's a quick recap of the long nite-

We were at the landing for an ice run about 5:30, and I had been watching the approaching front all day via a cell phone app (Garmin Mycast), and debated staying in from camp. I looked at the storm track coming and knew we'd get hit by something, but thought the worst of it would track just north of us. (Note: based on my forecasting ability, I will be keeping my day job!)

At 6:30 we were back at C11 preparing our wedding anniversary dinner... looked at the radar again and saw what was coming. We had never talked to the couple on the point at C5, so I went over and introduced myself and told them there was nasty stuff coming in about an hour. Nice folks, Mark and Gay from southern WI. The did not have any type of radio and had not heard a forecast. As C5 is very exposed to a west and south wind, we told them to come over by us if it got bad.

After dinner, we battened down the camp and boat while listening to the endless loops on the weather radio about chance of severe storms, tornado warning, etc. We preplanned that first shelter choice would be the picnic table, and had two alternate low spots in the ground as backups. I turned the radio back on again at about 7:30 and heard the specific warning about the storm about to hit the TFF in 5 minutes, and to take cover immediately. I ran over to C5 to warn them, then back to our camp to and started putting a big tarpthrough the downwind side of the picnic table, and it went from sunny and calm to blasting winds in seconds, along with the rain. Mark and Gay came running over from C5, we got the women well under the table, while Mark and I pushed as far under as we could... The tarp was like the a big taco with me at the open end, I was on my side trying to tuck under seat of the table. People talk about the roar of a tornado, there's no way to describe it until you're there. I remember watching a 16" red pine twist about 12' feet up and explode, and then the top 40 feet of the tree remain vertical and just float away. One second there were leaves on the trees, and the next second there were almost none on the ones that were still standing.

Trees started coming down all around us, and dog tried to run away, but we held her in place. To paraphrase the old WWII saying about foxholes, I can personally attest there are no atheists under the tables at the flowage! My butt was hanging out the side of the table, and the pine that came down and clipped off the corner of the table pinned me so I couldn't move. Moments later, the two other red pines came down over the top of the table causing a panic, but they also shifted the tree pinning me slightly so I could roll onto my belly and scoot forward a couple of inches and pull clear. I remember looking at my watch and it was 7:42 pm, and a million thoughts went through my head, of things like all the other campers with kids out there hoping they were OK, and that it would take hours to get everyone out.

The high winds finally died down, and then the lightening and heavy rain set in for the next 20 minutes... we joked the the lightning had nothing to hit, all the trees were gone. Finally, at about 8:00, the other 3 in our crew climbed out from under the table, saying "whew, we're OK", to which I replied...."ummmm, we need to call 911, I can't move!". They called in, then got more blankets and tarps to put over me, as there was about 2" of water under the table. We could hear sirens to the north up towards Fisherman's landing, but I still though it would take hours. About a half an hour later someone hollered "they're here", but I didn't believe it until I saw a work boot and reflective EMT pants sticking down through the brush around me.

The lowered down a back board and I crawled on, and after they strapped me in, the 3 of them scooted me over the fallen treetops and finally down to the pontoon. Mark and Gay, our newfound friends, volunteered to keep our dog while Rita and I went on. In the dark the way to Fisherman's, we hit something, and the front end of the pontoon went underwater, waterboarding me! That's one way to was the dirt off! At the landing, we had to wait offshore while someone that was hurt worse was put on an ambulance. The ambulance trip to Woodruff was long and bouncy.

The ER was like a scene from MASH; while I was getting x-rays and a CAT scan, Rita was checking me in, and someone noticed she had bad cuts on her legs. After bandaging those up, she commented she felt light headed, so they ran an EKG, which came back normal. The ER nurse wouldn't give up, and blood work showed that she was about to hit cardiac arrest, so Rita got bumped to higher priority than me. The considered flying her out right away, but she stabilized and we both ended up being hauled by ambulance to St. Joseph's in Marshfield. I was in for a week with a fractured pelvis, and Rita has an underlying heart condition that this event brought to light we'll be working on forever.

We are thankful for a lot of things, not the least of which our that we're alive, the fact that God has to have been watching over us, the unbelievably fast response time of the rescue crew, and the folks at Howard Young Med Center and St. Joseph's hospital, and the TFF staff for checking in on us! We're gonna be OK!

Hope everyone else continues to do well and recover and repair! Sorry this got a little long, but there is some healing and writing it! See you on the water - next year!

Larrynrita

Larrynrita, Thanks for posting your story - quite the experience! Glad everything turned out as good as it did. God put that picnic table there, and the others involved for a reason - He want's you around for a while.

We were fortunate enough to have pulled out of camp on that Tuesday with the black sky to our back. Take care of each other!

what an awesome story! the wife and i were there 2 weeks prior and i love extreme weather but the last place u want to experience it is on vacation and/or on an island. hope everyone is well and the TFF will recover and give us all great memories to come!

Wow, quite an account, especially sobering with the pictures. Glad that you and your wife survived to tell the story!! Having camped in that exact spot with my wife and dog, I got chills as I read it. What an experience...

Wow! That is a story you will be telling your grandchildren! I'm glad to hear things are slowly improving for you and others....as they say "time heals all wounds." I'm headed up Sat night for a little fishing on Sun.....to be honest, for the first time, I'm not looking forward to seeing the TFF.

I was out on the water today. I put in at fisherman's landing, and at first glance things didn't look all that bad. There were a few trees down here and there, but overall, I thought to myself "I thought it would be worse than this."

Then I started heading toward the dam. The West end of Long Island told a totally different story....it was destroyed! C12 is also pretty much destroyed. Many other sites in that area are just flattened. Really sad. I shot a crude video on my cell phone, which I hope to post soon.

We then headed over toward Springstead landing and saw several homes that took some pretty serious abuse. Went over toward Horseshoe and those areas were hit pretty hard as well. I'm sure that it will take a long time to clean it all up, but mother nature will eventually repair herself.

As for the fishing, the weather was perfect for walleye fishing...cool and overcast with a good chop on the water, wind WNW @ 15mph. The fishing on the other hand was a little on the slow side. 4 walleyes in 5 hours...and only one real keeper at that. Everything on crawlers.

I agree with Lundangler, the pics do not do justice to the extent of the devastation. Some friends took us out for a tour on their pontoon boat yesterday, and going back to C11 it was hard for us to see it all again.

Since fishing is out for the moment, I put a couple of albums in our public profile that have additional pics of the tornado aftermath, as well as an album from the fun times. Thanks for everyone's well wishes, now I'll go back to enjoying the posts about catching fish!

Larrynrita

What a nice picture of the luckiest people on the planet! Glad to see the smiles!

HOLY COW!!! That had to be the scariest moment of your lives, i am glad you are alright, i was up there the Friday after the storm and we stopped at your camp sight and i couldnt believe the devastation. God was certainly watching over you and your family and friends. I hope you all heal up and still are able to enjoy the area. I bet your dog was happy to see you when you returned as well!! :) Thank you for sharing the incredible story.

Ryan