7/1/11 – A man was killed near Kenosha last night when a tree fell onto the motorcycle he was riding during a heavy wind-storm. The storm pounded the Lake Michigan shore from Milwaukee-to-Chicago. Sheriff’s deputies said the 31-year-old man was struck just before 8:15 and died later at a hospital. Several others were injured in Kenosha, as winds gusted up to 75-miles-an-hour. Two people were hurt when they touched live electric wires. A woman suffered a broken hip when she was hit by debris from a shed. Kenosha Mayor Keith Bosman says the damage was still being assessed overnight – and it might take a few days to clean up the debris. The storm came on the first day of what forecasters say will be two days of intense heat. Up to 22-thousand electric customers were without power at the height of the storm. In Racine, the airport had winds of 82-miles-an-hour. And C-130 military plane that was on display spun by 45-to-50 degrees. As the storm moved south into Illinois, winds hit 94-miles-an-hour in Waukegan, and Chicago’s skyscrapers were pelted with golf-ball-sized hail. In western Wisconsin yesterday, the heat index hit 116 at Onalaska, just north of La Crosse. A heat advisory is in effect from noon-to-8 today for all of Wisconsin but the far northeast, with highs expected in the 90’s everywhere but Lake Superior. There’s a chance of more storms tonight and early tomorrow, and cooler highs in the 80’s are projected for tomorrow.
