TWO RIVERS (NBC 26) — A powerful storm Sunday night left damage across Two Rivers, with straight-line winds downing trees and power lines. At one point, about half the city was without electricity. Community groups are now stepping in to help.
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Grow It Forward is teaming up with the Two Rivers Hunger Task Force and Feeding America to bring a refrigerated truck with food items free of charge to the community. The distribution is happening across the street from the Two Rivers Senior Center and will continue until all 300 meals are gone.
Joseph Nowak, a Two Rivers resident, said the storm hit hard and fast.
"I thought the windows were gonna break and right in that moment we lost power," Nowak said.
After the storm passed, Nowak went outside to assess the damage.
"As soon as the storm ended, I went outside and saw this big piece of power line pole here and that tree fell on the pole but that pole was on the ground and that was the key to our electricity," Nowak said.
Nowak was without power for 27 hours. He said the focus quickly became preparing for a long outage, with worries about light and refrigeration.
"We took it to the beach on Saturday because it was 80 degrees and beautiful. Little did we realize it would be on standby to put food in if the power outage was going to be prolonged," Nowak said.
Heather Ihlenfeldt, the Senior Center supervisor, described what residents can expect at the distribution.
"Families can come up and they can expect to receive ground beef, milk, eggs, cheese, some pantry items. We are just looking to fill up their fridges if they lost any food during the outage," Ihlenfeldt said.
Residents who are still without power or had to throw food away are encouraged to visit the distribution site before all 300 meals are claimed.
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