Tornado hits northwestern Wisconsin

Rescuers try to see into the basement of a collapsed house after Monday's tornado

SIREN, Wisconsin (CNN) -- A tornado swept through this northwestern Wisconsin town Monday night, knocking down telephone wires and ripping power lines from poles and injuring at least six people.

Asked to describe the scene downtown, a man who answered the phone at the fire department said, "It looks like a bomb hit it." He said trees were down and buildings were flattened, and houses were decapitated, their roofs tossed to the ground. "We got no power, not trees, no roofs."

Siren Mayor Larry Blahauvietz said at least a dozen buildings in the downtown area were damaged.

"Some buildings were ... destroyed," he told CNN. "A cement building that was a garage was just totally demolished. A local hockey arena, which is only about a couple years old, was totally flattened."

The mayor said cars were turned over in parking lots. A gas station and the local Dairy Queen were both damaged, he said.

The storm hit at 8:23 p.m. (9:23 p.m. EDT), Sheriff Tim Curtin said.

Six people with injuries arrived at Burnett Medical Center in Grantsburg, about 15 miles west of Siren, said charge nurse Cindy Brown. She said "several" of them would be admitted.

Ambulances reported having a difficult time reaching the injured, said hospital spokeswoman Marie Dahlberg. Authorities feared there could be others injured who, because they had no telephone service, could not call for help.

The hospital has 17 beds, said chief executive Tim Wick, and can handle about 20 patients. Anticipating they could be overloaded with patients, the hospital brought in volunteers.

Emergency workers were searching damaged buildings for anyone injured, said Steve Merrick, a volunteer at the Burnett County Emergency Operations Center.

He said the local high school had become a shelter of sorts. A list was posted to help reunite anyone separated from their loved ones.

The National Weather Service said a tornado touched down five miles west of Siren and another north of Braham, Minnesota, across the border. The two tornadoes were from the same storm system, said Rich Thompson, lead forecaster at the Storms Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

At the Economart convenience store in Spooner, about 20 miles west of Siren, Kristen VanGuilder, 19, was working as a cashier when the skies outside darkened. "We were kinda peeking out the door; there was a funnel cloud going right over the store," she said.

Sam Jones, 78, said a tree fell in the driveway of his house two miles north of Siren and the neighborhood was pummeled by hail the size of baseballs. "I put a couple of them in the freezer."

He said he lost power for a few minutes. His neighbors, he said, were still without power more than an hour later.

Siren is in far northwestern Wisconsin, 68 miles north northeast of St. Paul. Minnesota. It has a population of about 900.