ARGYLE — As it is often said, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

For parishioners of Apple Grove Lutheran Church west of Argyle, today there are feelings of grief, community support and unquestioned faith in God as the future is blurry. That’s because an EF-2 tornado leveled the 131-year-old church on June 22, leaving the congregation of just under 150 people without their longtime place of worship. However, no major injuries or deaths were reported, and no homes were reportedly destroyed.

“The important thing is we are here today,” said Pastor Dan Bohlman to a crowd of more than 200 on Sunday morning, June 23, that came to the grounds to continue their regularly scheduled worship. “We are all safe, and we are here. Let us join in the worship (of God).”

Less than a decade ago, Apple Grove Church joined Argyle Lutheran Church and Yellowstone Lutheran Church, so the congregation will still have a nearby roof to hold Sunday services. 

“We’ll be meeting at Argyle Lutheran, so we don’t have to hurry up to figure out what we’re going to do. We’re going to take the time to take that deep breath, clean up the church and then we’ll start tackling the issue. But for now, worship services will be at Yellowstone and Argyle, rotating,” Bohlman said.

However, more than a century of memories — weddings, baptisms, funerals and community gatherings — have been blown away, some of which quite literally.

Tornado Outbreak

Leading into the weekend, weather forecasters warned climate conditions were just right for a tornado outbreak from central Iowa through Wisconsin and into Michigan. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a significant risk severe weather assessment across the country for a three-day period, from Friday through Sunday, June 21-23 between the plains states and New England. In fact, southern Wisconsin was given a 10% tornado risk for June 22, meaning there was about a 10% chance at a tornado to develop within 25 miles of any one location.

As supercells began to pop up in late afternoon in eastern Iowa, trained weather spotters were sent out in southwestern Wisconsin in Grant and Lafayette County. A tornado warning across the Mississippi River near Dubuque quickly saw a funnel cloud move into Grant County. Just after 5:30 p.m., a brief EF-0 tornado touched down in Cornelia, about five miles southwest of Platteville. 

It was the first of eight confirmed tornadoes to touch down in Wisconsin that day, while even more twisters hit parts of Iowa and Michigan. A brief EF-0 tornado near Belmont was confirmed by the NWS, with maximum winds at about 80 miles per hour. The Argyle tornado had max winds at 135 miles per hour — just one shy of reaching EF-3 status. There were four EF-1 tornadoes in Wisconsin, as well as another EF-2 that hit the south side of Janesville. In Walworth County, Lake Geneva and Williams Bay were hit with sister tornadoes stemming from the Janesville system. Marshall and Watertown in Dane and Jefferson counties were also hit. Tornado warnings also had residents in central Green County, Dane County near DeForest, Kenosha and other locations taking shelter.

“Spent time today surveying damage from tornadoes last night, including visiting with folks in Janesville and the Town of Rock,” Gov. Tony Evers posted on X (Twitter) Sunday evening. “Incredibly grateful for the first responders, neighbors, and many others showing up to help support each other, as Wisconsinites always do.”

Three of the eight tornadoes, including the Argyle twister, were given a Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) warning by the NWS. PDS wording is used in rare situations when long-lived, strong and violent tornadoes are possible. The Argyle tornado was also rain-wrapped, meaning for most people potentially in harm’s way, the twister was hidden behind a torrential downpour of rain and/or hail.

Deputies throughout Lafayette County were dispatched for reports of storm damage — from trees covering roadways to roofs on homes and barns being blown off. Argyle Fire, Belmont Fire, Benton Fire, Darlington Fire, Gratiot Fire, Shullsburg Fire, South Wayne Fire, Woodford Fire, Wisconsin DNR, Scenic Rivers and Darlington Police all assisted calls around the county.

In Rock County, emergency crews arrived in the area between Footville to Afton and south Janesville at about 8 p.m. to verify damage ranging from minor to significant and clearing debris from the roadway, according to a Rock County Sheriff’s Office press release. Power was lost in parts of Janesville, but no injuries were reported. The EF-2 tornado had an estimated wind speed of about 115 miles an hour at its peak.

The supercell also caused a power outage and some localized flooding in Brodhead.

There have been 35 confirmed tornadoes in Wisconsin in 2024 as of June 23, 12 more than the yearly average in the state.

There one minute, gone the next

The Cornelia tornado spun back up and continued to travel east into Lafayette County. According to storm chaser videos, the funnel touched down again near Belmont, damaging trees and an out-building. The storm twisted its way toward Lamont as a rope tornado, also known as a sidewinder, according to video taken by storm chaser Connor Croff, who was livestreaming his pursuit. Croff and his chase partner narrowly missed a direct intercept with the cyclone by about 100 yards as it crossed a road from one cornfield to the other. Rope tornadoes are one of five kinds of shapes of twisters, which also include cone, wedge, multi-vortex and water or landspouts.

Minutes after Croff’s close encounter, the cyclone found more than just some young corn fields to damage — it came down just east of Wis. 81 by Apple Branch Road, shredding the tops of trees, taking down sheds, damaging roofs of some farm homes, and, most significantly, directly hitting Apple Grove Lutheran Church.

The cemetery behind Apple Grove church saw extensive damage, as about half of the headstones — some weighing between 1,000-3,000 pounds — were toppled over. Grave decorations were scattered across the property and into the fields to the east. The church, built in 1893, was leveled, destroying the grand piano, stain glass windows and leaving the steeple bell buried in the wreckage some 70-feet from where it originally stood.

“I got a call, and they said the church had been hit by a tornado and there was some damage,” Bohlman said. “So, my wife Ann and I drove out, and about halfway there, Dave Soper, the fire chief called and said, ‘Dan, the church is gone.’ It was raining so hard and it was so dark, we couldn’t see it until we got right up to it. And … it’s just gone. The whole building was just completely gone.”

The twister continued east, crossing Wis. 81 again and following the hills and valleys of farmland to the intersection of County G and N, where it blew down multiple exterior buildings, uprooted and blasted the tops off of multiple trees.

Yellowstone Lutheran Church escaped damage, staying just north of the destructive path by less than a mile.

Laura Skattum, first grade teacher at Northside in Monroe, is a member at Yellowstone Lutheran and the youth leader for both churches. 

“As a member of Yellowstone, Apple Grove is truly a second home,” she said, fighting back tears.

The Skattum family has a rich history at the Apple Grove church, she said, as well as her mother’s side of family, the Bredesons. There are multiple gravestones of both last names in the cemetery behind the church dating back many years. Included in the debris lifted from the church, a signed check from 1998 by Harland Skattum, Laura’s grandfather’s cousin and father of Yellowstone Church’s pianist, was found on the Scuppernong Observation loop trail in Kettle Moraine State Forest, nearly 80 miles away.

Skattum said she had a classmate and close friend first send her a text message the night of the storm, telling her the church was destroyed. She couldn’t believe it at first, and eventually found more evidence on social media to back up the claim.

At the service the following day, Skattum led those in attendance in the singing of “Amazing Grace.” She said the support the churched received from the community was uplifting in the face of disaster.

“The power of a small town — when sad things happen, coming together as a community and lifting each other up — I think that’s what knowing what Jesus is, being there for people when they are in need,” she said. “I hope that the congregation at Apple Grove knows that they have a home at Yellowstone or at Argyle.”

Coming together

Bohlman said there are about 140 parishioners at the Apple Grove church, with about 50 coming to worship on average each week. Wanting to keep his church members’ spirits up, he said to meet at the grounds the next morning.

“I called Mike Flanagan and we talked. We just thought we needed to be here. We have to worship together. We have to laugh, and we have to cry,” Bohlman said.

The morning after the tornado, the parishioners met yet again at the site, holding a makeshift worship service outdoors among the debris. More than 200 people attended. 

“I was kind of numb. I am still kind of numb today, but as you can see (from the crowd) there is so much love and care, we’re going to be all right,” Bohlman said. “So many people turned out. There were a bunch of people from Yellowstone that felt they needed to come be with us. It’s things like that, that just make you realize you don’t have to carry on alone.”

A few dozen people came out early on to help clean up, though Bohlman had to turn away those with big equipment to help clear the area, because damage assessors and the insurance adjuster needed to observe the scene first, and they wouldn’t make it out until Monday, June 24 at the earliest.

“People were bringing their skid steers, their tractors — they were ready to go. I had to thank them but I said, no, don’t do that yet. Later this week probably,” Bohlman said.

Lifelong member Joanne Gouge said that the church was beautiful and that a lot of memories were made there, but that others shouldn’t lose sight of what’s most important.

“The church is a building, and a lot of times we worship the church because it is so beautiful and so wonderful, but it’s not everything. The people are the ones that make it. As long as we have that, we’re going to be OK. We will recover,” Gouge said.

The building featured burlap walls, stained glass windows and a 101-year-old grand piano. Parts of the windows and walls were strewn about the property and across the road in a field and wooded area. The piano was still standing on what remained of the damaged floor, though the lid had been blown off. A main beam on the floor was damaged, therefore making it unstable to walk on in an attempt to recover bibles, hymnals or pews. Volunteers were able to find a variety of ceremonial items to piece together an altar for the outdoor service. The steeple bell was found among the rubble and rang out by way of a hammer, giving it one last ring at its former home.

In the basement, the bathroom was intact and relatively untouched.

“We talked about why they say to go to the bathroom or a basement, because that’s the spot that’s safest. It’s so sad, but to see the bathroom in the basement is still there, it makes it not as scary,” Rachel Lattin said of a conversation she had with her first-grade daughter, Kinley. 

Lattin was confirmed in the church, married there and had her children baptized within its walls. 

“The girls go to Sunday school there every week. It’s so heartbreaking. So many wonderful memories there for my family,” she shared on social media just hours after the tornado passed through as word spread about the church’s destruction.

Flood risk, rainfall totals

While the current threat of damaging storms has passed, the next problem is likely to be localized flooding. The storms from Friday and Saturday poured more than 2 inches of rain across the area, pushing local rivers and streams into a flood risk. 

The Sugar River at Brodhead was in a flood warning from June 24-26, according to the NWS. The flooding would affect Green and Rock counties in Wisconsin, and Winnebago County downstream in Illinois. Minor flooding was expected.

According to the NWS, Argyle received just a trace amount of rain on Thursday. However, on Friday Argyle saw a full inch of rain with another 2.7 inches on Saturday for a two-day total of 3.7 inches. Monroe had just .2 inches on Thursday, .27 inches on Friday, but another 2.38 inches on Saturday for a three-day total of 2.85 inches. Brodhead saw .33 inches on Thursday, .36 inches Friday and 2.45 inches on Saturday, for a three-day total of 3.14 inches.