Roads cleared of storm-caused blockages
WINONA, Minn. – Downed power lines, trees and debris blocked alleys and streets in the city and up coulees and on bluff-top croplands from one end of Winona County to the other during storms Tuesday evening. All roads were passable by dawn, police said. The city alone had 17 incidents of trees and limbs posing road hazards, police and parks crews cleared away. Trees were blown into three houses in the city but with no apparent structural damage. Through it all, no injuries were reported. In two separate incidents, sheriff’s deputies herded cows and horses off roads and back inside fencing that had been torn up. The Rushford-based MiEnergy co-op had 1,700 outages, all of them back on line by 4 a.m.
Earlier: Storm ruins two Rollingstone houses
Earlier: Photo gallery
Storm ruins two Rollingstone houses
ROLLINGSTONE, Minn. – Two houses were rendered uninhabitable in the Tuesday evening storm — one of them in the 100 block of Broadway Street near Holy Trinity Church, the other outside of town. No one was injured. A third house took a lightning strike, but a fire crew found no fire. On Highway 248 west of town, a light single-axle cargo trailer at the Mini-Mart convenience store was overturned at the gas pumps. A garage and a barn along Highway 248 were also damaged. Ben Klinger, the Winona County emergency management director, said his first assessment was that a “weak tornado” had passed west-to-east through town. Klinger was back in Rollingstone in the morning with inspectors from the National Weather Service for a detailed assessment. To be determined is whether the county qualifies for federal and state emergency recovery assistance.
Earlier: Rollingstone touchdown: Tornado whips trailer on side
Earlier: Photo gallery
Emergency, fire crews make 54 calls
WINONA, Minn. – The Fire Department reported 40 emergency medical calls plus 14 fire calls in recent days:
> Tuesday, May 21: 9 medical calls plus 3 fire call.
> Monday, May 20: 4 medical calls plus 5 fire calls.
> Sunday, May 19: 7 medical calls plus 2 fire calls.
> Saturday, May 18: 6 medical calls plus no fire calls.
> Friday, May 17: 5 medical calls plus no fire calls.
> Thursday, May 16: 4 medical calls plus 1 fire call.
> Wednesday, May 15: 5 medical calls plus 3 fire calls.
Cop says he smelled the driver was drunk
WINONA, Minn. – A LaCrosse driver who an officer said smelled of alcohol was arrested as drunk at the wheel. Larry Mooore, 42, refused to be tested for the alcohol concentraion his blood, but the officer said there was no doubt about impairment. Moore, he said, had bloodshot and watery eyes and failed roadside walk-through tests. The arrest was about 12:20 a.m. at Huff and Mill streets. Moore was stopped for missing a stop sign.
R.I.P.: Margaret McCauley
WINONA, Minn. — Margaret McCauley, age 96, of Winona, who was involved heavily in community affairs, died at home. She guided tours at the historic Bunnell House, taught English to Bosnian refugees, volunteered at Birthright, and worked as a caregiver at St. Anne’s Hospice and the Lamberton House. Proud of her heritage, she called herself as an “Irish Viking.” She held a history degree from Winona State University. Her late husband, Winona State physics professor Mac McCauley, was a state legislator and County Board member. She clerked at Spurgeon’s downtown department store in downtown Winona and for awhile owned her own hair salon. She was active in a local Civil War round table and the Winona Historical Society.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
1928-2024
Minnesota prep
Tennis (boys): Winona Cotter Ramblers 4, Rochester Lourdes Eagles 3
Tennis (boys): Winona Cotter Ramblers 6, Waseca Bluejays 1
Tennis (boys): Rochester Lourdes Eagle 5, Rochester Schaeffer Lions 2
Rollingstone touchdown: Tornado whips trailer on side
Through Winona County. Damage was most severe on what appears to be a path from St. Charles, then eight miles to Altura, then five miles to Rollingstone, four miles to Bass Camp, and across the Mississippi into Buffalo Cunty in Wisconsin. The Rollingstone touchdown was 6:11 p.m. Was it one tornado? Multiple tornadoes? The National Weather Service will have inspectors from La Crosse on the ground in the morning for a meteorlogical post-mortem.
Cochrane. Where a barn once stood
On Buffalo County Road O. Almost like a precision-targeted aerial attack in wartime: One barn completely leveled. Another untouched, Also untouched was the farm house a few yards away. This at the Rose Valley turn-off. Image: Buffalo County sheriff
St. Charles: Backyard trampoline goes skyward
Kids can’t believe it. Nor the folks. Severe winds were in several cells that mowed their way east-northeast from Iowa. This backyard is near the Winona-Olmsted county line. Image: Kaylee Hammel
LaCrosse: No bicycling on this day
Among hundreds of downed trees. Winds in a massive swath across northern Iowa, southeast Minnesota and western Wisconsin took out more trees than anybody can count. This was on a residential street in LaCrosse. Image: Kevin Thompson
Train hits car at rail crossing; driver dies
ALMA CENTER, Wis. – An automobile driver was killed crossing the Canadian National tracks ahead of a freight train. First-responders told Jackson County deputies that the driver died on impact. The accident was about 5:20 p.m. The driver, police said, had failed to yield rjght-of-way.
Swastika adds to Winona neo-Nazi mystery
WINONA, Minn. – A swastika symbol was found scrawled on a bench on a street at the Cotter Schools campus 1-1/2 weeks ago. This was about the same time that a neo-Nazi group, Aryan Freedom Network, dropped recruiting propaganda in the Cotter neighborhood on the West End. A janitor scraped the swastika from the bench, a Cotter source said. The exact night of the AFN propaganda drop was never ascertained, but the messages, encased in zip-lock baggies, began being reported strewn on lawns the morning of May 14. Two nights earlier a liquid-filled bottle was heaved at a factory on Fifth Street from a drive-by vehicle. This too was in the Cotter neighborhood. Police report not finding connnections.
Earlier: Time-line question: Neo-Nazis splattered factory?
Earlier: Jar heaved at Fifth Street building, shatters
Earlier: Expert unsurprised at hate-monger tactics in Winona
Fearful symbol. The swastika was the symbol of Nazi Germany leading up to World War II and through the war. The symbol was outlawed in most of Europe after the war but persists as a terrorizing symbol with shadowy neo-Nazis in the United States.
Cops: School girl taking hits between classes
WINONA, Minn. – Police ticketed a Winona High School junior for possessing and using a cannabis pen to inhale at school. Police did not release the juvenile’s name but said she was 17 and from Rollingstone. Law specifically forbids cannabis on school property. The police report didn’t specify whether the girl had a dab pen or a vape pen or whether the cartridge was a concentrate or extract.
Dab and vape pens. A messy tool that gums up and needs scouring.
UW-L christens river research vessel
LACROSSE, Wis. – In a ceremony at Riverside Park they broke a bottle of champagne across the bow of the new University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse river research vessel. The 32-foot aluminum catamaran, christened Prairie Springs, already has been out on the Mississippi to study microplastics contamination with high-end sonar mapping river-bottom sedimentation. The vessel also can used for research on inland lakes.
“Prairie Springs.” The $500,000 vessel bears the name of the campus science builidng. Image: Hope Kirwin
Test run at Mayo’s rooftop LaCrosse helipad
Inaugural success. A part of a certification process, the helipad atop the new six-story Mayo hospital addition in LaCrosse took its first incoming landing. It was a test. No patients. Mayo has four med-evac helicopters, two stationed in a roof-top hangar in Rochester and one each at the Mankato and Eau Claire airports. The new 96-bed facility becomes operational in the fall.
Canoeists presumed drowned in wilderness falls
ELY, Minn. – Two days after a pair of Minnesota canoeists disappeared over roaring Curtain Falls in the Boundary wilderness, the status of the search was changed from a rescue to recovery. Presumed to have drowned were Jesse Melvin Haugen, 41, of Cambridge, and Reis Melvin Grams, 40, of Lino Lakes. Their overturned canoe and gear were found downriver from the Iron Lake escarpment. A rescue team had been flown into the wilderness by helicopter. On Sunday two other canoeists were found injured. They were airlifted 110 miles to a Duluth hospital. A fifth canoeist was found uninjured at a campsite.
Curtain Falls. No matter the water level, the lower end of Curtain Falls can cause a canoe to swamp if approached from the channel-side landing. With high waters, it’s even more dangerous.
Expect severe storms, hail, maybe tornadoes
WINONA, Minn. – Horrendous storms with perhaps hail, possibly also with tornadoes, were forecast for afternoon into evening for southeast Minnesota and adjacent Iowa and Wisconsin. The new storm risk was listed as a Level 3 and Level 4 risk on a five-point scale. The National Weather Service said the threat was greatest south of Interstate 90 – as much as 20 times more than normal in places for a day mid-May. Large hail was likely, as well as localized flooding. The window for the most severe weather was fore at between 3 and 9 p.m.
Schools dismiss students early – ahead of storms
WINONA, Minn. – Heeding forecasts of severe storms, administrators in several districts called buses early to take students homs. Closing about 1 p.m. in Houston County were schools in the Caledonia, La Crescent-Hokah, and Spring Grove distucts. In Wisconsin, a similar decision was made in DeSoto.
R.I.P.: Donald Gensmer
WINONA, Minn. – Donald E. Gensmer, age 92, of Winona, formerly of Rollingstone, a craftsman for many years with Scharmer Construction, died at Sugar Loaf Senior Living. He was a member of the Valley Riders. He loved hunting, fishing, boating on the river, flowers, gardening and camping. Then too there was fun with his Ford Thunderbird.
Detail: Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home
1931-2024
Borealis day trains begin new corridor trips
Morning departure from St. Paul. Winona 110 minutes away, Chicago another 514. A bit faster than the existing Empire Builder schedule.
Pitch to travelers: Beats driving, environment friendly
WINONA, Minn. – With consists of five coaches each, two new Amtrak passenger trains connecting St. Paul and Chicago departed their respective end-points on their inaugural journey. Ribbon-cutting ceremonies marked the event at Winona and 10 other intermediate points. At the St. Paul send-off, Ramsey County Commissioner Trista Martinson told a crowd that the Borealis will reduce car travel by 580,000 miles. “This is huge for our environment,” she said. The Borealis is the first regional train on the corridor since.1981 when Amtrak dropped its North Star for ridership issues. Without the North Star, only the premium Empire Builder to the West Coast plied the route. Unlike the federally funded Empire Builder. the Borealis has financial support from the states of Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Ribbon-cutting. Mayor Scott Sherman has scissors in hand to welcome the arrival of the first Borealis.
Arrest in drive-off trailer thefts
BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. – For weeks somebody driving a pickup truck with a trailer hitch has been roaming northern Jackson County, hooking up trailers, and driving off. It’s brazen and easily accomplished thievery. Now the cops believe they have the thief. Jackson County Sheriff Duane Waldera said a Neillsville man, Edward Decorah, 44, was arrested at his home. Recovered, the sheriff said, were stolen goods including an all-terrain vehicle strapped on a trailer. The thefts began in April in the Alma Center and Merrillan areas 20 miles south of Neillsville. Felony and misdemeanor charges can be expected, Waldera said.
Decorah. Cops say: “Have trailer hitch, will travel.”
Boat gears jam, drifts powerless to isle
TREMPEALEAU, Wis. – A pleasure boat drifted onto a sandbar off Trempealeau, stranding the boaters. This was late, about 11:50 p.m. The boaters phoned for help. To their rescue came the Winona County sheriff’s dive and rescue team. The boaters were ferried to a landing, the disabled boat in tow. The call was the second of the night for the rescue team. Earlier in the day there also was a rescue by firefighters at theAlma dam 35 miles upriver.
Minnesota prep
Lacrosse (girls): Mankato 13, Rochester Marshall Rockets 8
Track and field (boys): Rochester Mayo Spartans 92, Winona Winhawks 42, Red Wing Wingers 8
Track and field (girls): Rochester Mayo Spartans 98, Winona Winhawks 27, Red Wing Wingers 18.
Wisconsin prep
Baseball: LaCrosse Aquinas Blugolds 2, LaCrosse Central RiverHawks 0
City to close East End foot path over tracks
High Forest shortcut. The minimially maintained foot path over the tracks will now be blocked off. Why? For safety. Image: Steve Lunde
But not the similar Carimona crossing, which stays
WINONA, Minn. — The Winona City Council voted 4-3to close the pedestrian path across the Canadian Pacific mainline on High Forest Street on the Far East End. The state Transportation Department had recommended the closing for safety reasons. The crossing has no warning, flashers, bells or whistles and is unevenly steep and doesn’t meet federal standards for disability access. City Council member Jerome Christenson expressed concern about kids bicycling over the tracks. The Council didn’t accept a similar state recommendation to close the Carimona pedestrian crossing three blocks away, which was deemed less unsafe.
Rail traffic
The state wanted both the High Forest and Carimona pedestrian crossings closed because of new rail traffic with two Amtrak Borealis passenger trains day. A fact, however, is that the number of trains a day through the city has declined significantly in recent ears because the Canadian Pacific is running far fewer albeit much longer freight trains.
How they voted: On closing High Forest crossing
To close
George Borzyskowski, Ward 4 (East End)
Jeff Hyma, Ward 2 (West Side)
Scott Sherman, mayor
Steve Young, Ward 1 (Fleeting harbor and West End)
Against
Jerome Christenson, at large
Pam Eyden, Ward 3 (WSU and downtown)
Aaron Repinski, at large
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