April 3, 2025 – West Bend, WI – The National Weather Service issued a notice about severe storm potential this week as there was concern about a broken line of storms with damaging winds, large hail, and they reported “a tornado cannot be ruled out.” The timing is eerie since April 4 will be the 44th years since a tornado struck West Bend, WI. It happened in the middle of the night on April 4, 1981. Members of the West Bend Fire Department remember the call.
“It was a long night… a very long night.”
“The train had just gone through, and I thought… the trains coming through again,” said Mike Tennies. “The fire department did a great job along with the police department.”
Click HERE for a series of photos following the tornado April 4, 1981
“I was at home and thought it was just a fire call and I didn’t know what we had until I got to the station and then it was all hands-on deck,” said James Hodge. “A lot of the equipment had flat tires. We were up there changing tires on equipment. It was a long cold night.”
Click HERE to see the report from the American Meteorological Society.
Janet Meisenheimer was a nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital in West Bend in 1981 when the tornado hit the north side of the community.
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“The code was Dr. Blue or Dr. White and that meant to be prepared for bad storms in the area,” she said. “A little bit after midnight there was a baby delivered … but on the outside the storm was hitting badly.”
Staff at St. Joe’s Hospital made plans to evacuate and “we lined up all the cribs of the babies just in case we had to go to a lower floor.”
Janet Meisenheimer also remembered how vital the nuns were to the hospital. They lived on site in a small dormitory, and they always were on call. Meisenheimer remembered Sr. Loretta and how critical she was when it came to delivering babies.
Click HERE for a photo gallery from Badger Firefighters Association.
We lived behind Lighthouse Lanes and woke to a train like noise. By days light everyone heard of the hit in the Town of Barton. A friend and bowling member was Kathy Schlefke. Ron Schlefke was a part of the West Bend fire,and rescue. They lost their son Scott when their house was hit by the tornado. It was devastating and so heartbreaking. The aftermath hit our community long and hard.
Kathy was a classmate of mine. It was a devastating night. I lived on the bottom of 10th ave.and it hit just over the top of the hill .
We lived on 10th and Jefferson my Grandma lived on Rosevelt. We had tons of insulation and shingles in our yard along with other stuff. My sister was a senior Police Explorer and King Riffle allowed them to help with security. My grandma’s house needed roof replacement and the shed we were planning on taking down that summer vanished. The bolts stayed though. Up the street was sheer distraction. I remember helping out with clean up with my scout troop later on as well.
I was living in Kewaskum with my parents when this happened.
Some of my coworkers at Amity lived on off of Main Street, up on streets in the Barton area.
Remember them talking about the storm at work, and that they had damage to their residence then.