‘Overwhelming looking at the mess': Mayville community working through aftermath of tornado

Yahoo

17-05-2025

MAYVILLE, Wis. (WFRV) – With even more high winds and rain following Thursday evening's tornado, Mayville community members are working around the clock to get things back into place, or working order, as best they can.
'It's overwhelming looking at the mess,' Mayville Engineering Company employee Brad Lagerman said, who has worked on the maintenance team for 35 years. 'It's a lot, we have a full crew in here and they were really good at getting the crew needed here to get all of this work done.'
An entire wall of the engineering company is gone, just a pile of rubble remains. A giant air conditioning unit also was stripped from the roof, tearing a large hole, before being smashed into the ground.
Crews worked on the roof and the side of the building throughout Friday, working to get some patching in place and also to quickly restore power. Power had been restored to Mayville earlier on Friday, but individual homes or businesses that had their lines snapped may still be waiting.
How long will it take MEC to return to normal? And when you lose an entire wall, what does 'normal' even look like?
'I'm not sure. Hoping maybe we can run on Monday,' Lagerman said, although the repairs will take weeks to complete. Employees are hopeful to begin distributing product again as soon as possible.
And just across Clark St., the Gleason Reel building might even be worse off, with an entire corner, wall and roof, demolished. Heavy cinder blocks fell and cracked onto parked cars below, leaving them warped with dents and smashed windshields.
The City of Mayville administration is asking those interested in volunteering during the cleanup to contact city hall in order to be added to a volunteer list.
Mayville High School did not have class, and is instead being used by the Red Cross to provide shelter and relief efforts. Students from neighboring Lomira High School did have class, but some left early to help with the cleanup.
'I was in school but I couldn't just sit around,' Keagen Fleischer said. 'It's just not the kind of person I am.'
'I'm here cleaning up, because when I'm older and have something like this happen I'd love to have some kids out here helping,' Logan Keacker said.
Utility crews, company employees, students and neighbors, all pooling their best effort. At least by the end of the day, the sun that had been obscured by rain clouds for much of the day was able to shine through before setting, perhaps a small signal of the better days ahead with everyone working together.
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