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With video: Residents describe powerful Eagle tornado

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Tornado rips through the village of Eagle

A tornado tore through the village of Eagle, Wis., June 21, 2010, damaging more than 100 homes.

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Tim Fisher stands in front of the farm house he lives in on Sprague Road near Eagle. A tornado blew down trees and sheds as it moved through the area. Dan Plutchak/staff.

EAGLE -- A state of emergency was called in Palmyra Tuesday after a tornado tore through the center of town Monday evening.

Police had cordoned off a perimeter on the south side of town in the most heavily damaged area. Residents were asked to keep off the streets, and were given wristbands if they were being escorted back to their residences.

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Crews from WE Energies were working to turn off power to the area, but there were still live lines Tuesday morning.

About 2,000 to 3,000 residents in the Eagle area are still without power, according to a WE Energies spokesman.

Katerina Schultz was home with her parents when the tornado hit. The home is in the most heavily damaged subdivision on the south side of town.

"I was trying to close the kitchen windows when they blew in," Schultz said. That's when her parents told her to get into the basement.

When they came out a while later, the neighborhood was devastated. Homes were destroyed and cars were overturned, she said.

Linda Maras was at home on the west side of town when the tornado rumbled through.

"You now that whistle," she said.

Maras lives in an older home, and rushed to safety in an old cistern.

Maras and Schultz were among many residents Tuesday morning unsure of how and when the could get back to their homes.

A police officer gave them wristbands and directed them to the village hall, where residents were being escorted by a police officer or firefighter back into the storm ravaged areas.

Tim Fisher was at the farmhouse that he lives in on Sprague Road, just east of the village, when the tornado passed about 9 p.m.

"I was trying to get into the house and it was blowing me and knocked my feet out from underneath me before I hit the door," Fisher said.

"As soon as I got into the house I heard a window popping, so I ran downstairs. I stayed down there a couple of minutes, and when I came up, here we are."

Several sheds on the property also were overturned, including a chicken coop that was laid on its side.

"Looks like the shed that landed on the wicked witch," Fisher mused.

Fisher and the property owner, Terry Rupp, had just completed fixing the farmhouse up.

"We just took the tools out yesterday," Rupp said.

As the cleanup begins, those tools are sure to come in handy.