Marquette County emergency management: April produced record rainfall, near‑flooding and a tornado hit a farm

Aaron, Marquette County’s emergency management official, told the Judicial & Public Safety Committee that April brought an unusually heavy run of storms and that the county recorded 7.91 inches of precipitation for the month — about double the county’s April average of roughly 3.7 inches.

"April ... was the wettest month of April on record going back to 1954," Aaron said, describing near‑flood conditions that prompted discussions of sandbagging, multiple road closures and coordination with the National Weather Service and Wisconsin Emergency Management. He showed photos of high water at the Montello causeway and said staff monitored bridge and downtown levels closely.

Aaron also described a tornado that caused structural damage at the Gums Farm: garage doors were "sucked in" on a large red building and a three‑sided equipment shelter lost its contents. He said that, aside from downed trees, the Gums Farm incident was the only structural damage reported countywide from the April storms.

The county also has been sharing weather‑spotter training materials and has rescheduled a statewide tornado drill component; Aaron announced a full‑scale exercise at the fairgrounds on an upcoming Saturday that will include fire, EMS, law enforcement, highway and school partners and will conclude with an after‑action hot wash.

What happens next: emergency management will continue monitoring water levels and coordinate with state partners on damage assessments; the county will run the announced full‑scale exercise to test multiagency response.