Greetings and welcome!
The storm was a really bad one for the Town of Silver Cliff. The news came out late afternoon that the NWS has confirmed that it was indeed a tornado that hit the area of the Silver Cliff Fire & Rescue building.
The most serious damage was from about Lexow’s and east to Hwy I (Parkway north). Van Ark’s got hit bad, as did the fire dept building, the house next door, and all of the town buildings. The new town shop was leveled and the stuff inside damaged, and the roof is missing from the salt shed. The tornado continued north along Hwy I and took out a bunch of trees and hit several houses in the area. The news report said that it was 3-5 million in damages.
https://www.wbay.com/2022/06/17/silver-cliff-damage-estimated-3-million-5-million/
In typical Silver Cliff fashion people turned out in force to help clear debris. That work will continue for a while.
The Sheriff’s Dept asked that people not on work crews avoid the area. There were plenty of videos on FaceBook where people rode through the damage area. I listed a couple below.
There was another damage path a couple of miles east of the tornado along Fox Lake Rd. Several residents were trapped at home by an estimated 100 trees fallen across their road. They put the word out of FaceBook and people showed up to help in short order. I also heard about a damage path near Firelane Rd, and another near Tower Rd, but that is unconfirmed.
There was more storm damage in Athelstane, Crivitz, Wausaukee, and Middle Inlet. According to reports areas west of the Peshtigo River and south of Caldron Falls escaped major damage, but may see the occasional tree down..
The damage from the storm was very sporadic. A lot of areas scattered around saw significant damage, while many nearby areas did not. It is hard to pin down.
Right now your best resource for damage reports will be your neighbors. There were a lot of people putting damage reports on the FaceBook groups Crivitz Area Talk and on Silver Cliff Links of Interest.
I was at the GF’s house near Fisher’s Camp when the storm hit. It was bad enough that I got her and the dog out into our shelter (a very well built Quonset hut). It was a bad storm here, but the real bad stuff was 3.5 miles away by the Silver Cliff VFD.
She asked if this was the first tornado that I knew of in Silver Cliff. It was not. After hitting Riverview the Bear Paw/Riverview tornado made its way this way. It split in a Y shape and one branch of it went and hit the Thunder Mountain Ranch. There was devastation with huge trees taken out down by Caldron Falls and Ranch Road.
The northern branch of that jumped Crandall Lake 1/4 mile behind my house, and came down and took a bunch of tree tops at Rapids Resort and along the river. I know, I was there watching it.
Prior to its arrival I was outside at my house getting ready for it. I moved the cars to opposite ends of the property in hopes that at least one would be spared. I then got the generator set up and into the car. I could hear the approaching roar and could hear the carnage as the tornado took down steel sided buildings. If I ever hear that sound again it will be too soon.
At the last minute I got the GF into the car and evacuated to Rapids Resort where they have a basement. That is where I watched it come and hit a bunch of trees by the river before dissipating. At best it was an EF-0. By then it was pretty played out.
This was not the first tornado in Silver Cliff, but it was by far the worst.
If you want to pitch in go over to the FB Silver Cliff Links Of Interest group and see who needs help. You can also go to the Town Hall and sign up. There is plenty of cleanup to do and someone can use your talents.
It was a bad day in Silver Cliff and one that we won’t soon forget. We also need to remember how our community stepped up and showed up with chainsaws and heavy equipment to clear the damage and help people. We should be very proud of that.
RJB
Here are some links to videos that people took..
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1420166518312397/user/40601837/
The NWS page listing it as a confirmed tornado- https://www.weather.gov/grb/061522_severe_event
They have not updated with the EF rating or damage path details but they will when they catch up.