Report Your Damage

Outagamie County took over 20,000 outages and significant tornado damage through Grand Chute and southwest Appleton, including the Miller Electric facility.

Report your damage to Outagamie County Emergency Management even if it seems minor or is insured. The county needs the documented total to pursue state and federal assistance for residents.

Outagamie County has confirmed the method: call 211 to report property damage. That is the county's own published instruction, not a workaround.

This is the most important five minutes you can spend for your neighbors.

State and federal disaster assistance is unlocked by thresholds — a county has to document a certain dollar value of uninsured damage before individual assistance becomes available at all. That total is built from individual reports. Damage nobody reports does not exist as far as the threshold is concerned.

Report even if: your damage seems small, you have insurance, you are a renter, you have already started repairs, or you assume someone else reported your street. All of it counts.

Have ready: your address, whether the home is habitable, a rough description, an estimated dollar value if you can guess, and photographs.

Winnebago County Emergency Management is coordinating with Wisconsin Emergency Management on damage assessment. Reporting is normally through the county website or a phone line announced after the event — check the county site for the current intake method, or call 211 if you cannot find it.

A local drone service based in the Fox Valley, offering aerial photography and video of roof and property damage suitable for submitting with an insurance claim.

Call to ask about availability, turnaround and pricing — demand for this is high across the damage path right now, so book early if you need it.

Ask them for high-resolution stills as well as video, and for files you can download and keep rather than only a link, so the evidence stays with you.

Ask about the FAA flight restriction. Until 6:45 p.m. Saturday, August 1, drone flights within 2 miles of the Menasha Police Department require FAA authorization. A properly run operator will already know this and will tell you whether your address falls inside the zone.