FOREST COUNTY - Severe weather, including high winds and over four inches of rain, hit parts of the Northwoods hard Tuesday night.

Several Forest County communities were working through flooded yards and down trees Wednesday.

Wind speeds exceeded 55 miles per hour in Laona, leaving trees down throughout the community.

The Murray family of Laona had several trees snap in the middle of the trunk, ripping others from the ground.

This morning, seventh-grader McKenna Murray couldn't believe what she saw.

"I was surprised because we didn't hear them over top of the air conditioners, and the dog didn't bark," she said.

In Wabeno, the the north branch of the Oconto River was overflowing. Some people awoke to find the river rushing through their back yard.

"In the Laona, Crandon areas, Wabeno areas, we saw a lot of wires down, a couple broken poles," said Leah Van Zile of the Wisconsin Public Service. "I know there were reports of hail, so it was quite a big storm cell that went through."

Damage extends to Boulder Junction, where county highways were closed from trees on the roads.

Wisconsin Public Service is still working to restore power to the 13,000 customers in the Northwoods who lost electricity.

WPS says downed trees account for most of the outages, including about 3,600 in Wabeno, 2,300 in Eagle River, and more than 1,400 in Rhinelander.

Van Zile says WPS crews will keep working to restore power throughout the day and possibly into Wednesday morning.

"We're keeping our crews hydrated. We have our summer kids out delievering Gatorade and food to keep them hydrated and nourished during this hot weather," she said. "We are hoping to have most customers restored by this evening, however in some of the heavily affected areas over in the Forest County area, some of those customers may be out until tomorrow morning."

Story By: Ben Meyer