MERRILL - This morning’s severe storms soaked the region in heavy rain, and damaging winds took down 60 foot trees- roots and all- hitting the Merrill especially hard.

Thankfully no one was injured and damage to buildings and homes was minimal, but many of the town’s oldest trees were not so lucky.

"I haven't seen rain that heavy… We couldn't see between the houses, and the trees started to brush against my windows, so I decided that I'd go towards the cellar, and I watched my trees fall down at the same time I was walking past," said Merrill resident Michael Wahoske.

The Wahoske’s lost several trees on their property, including one that knocked down power lines behind their house. It was the same story all over Merrill. Just after 6 a.m., the biggest trees started to fall.

“I'm pretty sure it was a straight line wind event, probably 60 miles an hour or more, and since we had some drenching rains the last couple of days, this is the result of that,” says Lincoln County Emergency Management Director, Brian Sladek, indicating several large uprooted trees on the courthouse lawn.

Also a result of downed trees, downed power lines, kept crews busy working to clear the lines and get the lights back on.

Except for the Grandstand at the Lincoln County fair, most buildings escaped harm. However the storm did show its strength in other odd ways.

"They say the wind in this area was 40 miles an hour, I would say the wind that took my trees out was a lot heavier than that… We had [metal] hooks that held plants that were bent at the base," says Wahoske.

"Gonna be a lot of work to clean up all the mess, we're very fortunate no one was injured, but it's gonna be a lot of work for everyone to get everything cleaned up again," says Sladek.

Still the severe storms couldn’t rain on everyone’s day…

"They were substantial trees, they were pretty- and now we have more sun in our front yard than we've had for years!” says Wahoske with a smile.

Story By: Kailey Burton