OAKFIELD – Joanne Martin moved back to her hometown of Oakfield in the spring of 1996.
She settled into a place of her own with a daughter who was looking forward to starting kindergarten.
Four months later, on July 18, a tornado ripped through the rural farm community, forever changing the landscape and lives of those who lost so much.
“Nothing was left. Nothing was salvageable,” Martin said of her house and all her belongings.
Had they been home around 6:15 p.m. that day, instead of at Shakey’s Pizza in Fond du Lac, she believes they would have been killed in the tornado.
“Emotionally and financially I have not recovered from it,” said Martin, who is an Oakfield first responder.
“When the sirens go off, I still start to tear up.”
But survive she did, along with the rest of the 1,000 residents who lived in the tiny village.
On Saturday they gathered to celebrate 20 years of life, the resurrection of their community and the healing that came in the aftermath of destruction.
Inside the Oakfield firehouse, volunteers served up pulled pork and roast beef sandwiches. Tables were laden with homemade desserts, the kind you might find at a church picnic. A bounce house and dunk tanks were there and a tug of war between local fire departments took place. Kids with painted faces ran around laughing. Neighbors greeted one another with pats on the back.
Inside the Oakfield Community Center, Gene and Sharon Kollmann stood near the dozens of photographs and newspaper clippings on display. A home video of the F5 twister played on a large screen. A fold-out table held a wedding dress, a broken sign from the Methodist Church, a hymnal and brass collection plates that were rippled, like waves on a lake.
“It looked like a battlefield,” Gene Kollmann said.
They lived on Second Street at the time, and Gene said he hightailed it to the basement when cans from the nearby canning factory came sailing through the air.
The Kollmanns were lucky. Only a window was damaged on their house. Outside, the town smelled of natural gas. A neighbor came by to borrow a wrench, and he walked through the village turning off gas valves.
The National Weather Service reported that four homes were swept off their foundations. Automobiles became airborne missiles. Along the tornado’s path, 66 buildings were destroyed and 130 were damaged. Barns, sheds, two churches, a school and 500 acres of crops were wiped out. Damages totaled $39.5 million.
Twenty years ago, Oakfield Fire Chief Bill Rusch was a lieutenant. The first thing firefighters did was conduct a house-to-house search, knocking on every door, he said. Fire departments throughout the county took turns helping the village. The National Guard was called in and residents were given red identification tags to get in and out of the secured community.
Rose Collien still remembers how the storm looked as it approached Oakfield, descending like a huge dark wall. She saw the tornado heading east along River Road, its immensity filled with spinning debris.
All that was left of the ravaged homes were interior closets, staircases and basements.
To this day, after 20 years, she still finds shards of glass in the soil when she works in her garden.
People say it’s a miracle no one was killed. An F5 tornado is the most powerful in intensity and the deadliest.
“When you hear what happens in other places, people dying, you wonder how it didn’t happen here,” said Meg Murphy, who helped organize the event.
At St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, all that remained was a large painting of Jesus. Underneath were words from Matthew 28:20: “Lo, I Am With You Always.”
Reach Sharon Roznik at sroznik@fdlreporter or 920-907-7936; on Twitter: @sharonroznik.
BY: Sharon Roznik, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin 8:43 a.m. CDT July 18, 2016
Photo: Action Reporter Media, archive photo
