For centuries, Wisconsin has been dealing with dangerous summer storms. One family knows all too well just how powerful they are.

"I've just never really talked about it until today," says tornado survivor Mary Ulry.

Many Wisconsin families have horrible memories from June tornadoes in Wisconsin. Almost five decades later, a brother and sister relive the night 28 people were killed and 350 people were hurt.

June 4, 1958. Nine-year-old Lloyd and his 10-year-old sister Mary were playing outside their Chippewa Falls home.

“The sky started turning colors. It turned kind of a yellow and it just seemed kind of odd,” says Lloyd Kukuk.

Their mom told them to get in the car so they could go warn their dad at work. They had just gotten into the office on the east side of town when the tornado ripped it apart.

“When it hit, all of a sudden everything just kind of exploded,” Lloyd remembered.

“When I stood up, I seen the fuel oil stove which was right in front of me being sucked up through the ceiling of the office,” says his sister Mary Ulry.

“I know I’ve heard it a thousand times. I heard this roar and it sounded like locomotives coming,” Lloyd says.

“I had wood pieces of board, wood splinters, pounded in my skin. I had my thumb half cut off. I had my knee smashed,” Mary recounts.

“The sand and debris was even pounding its way underneath your eyelids when your eyes were closed,” says Lloyd.

The tornado buried Mary beneath two stories of building, but she says her hero came to her rescue.

“Our dad saved our lives,” she says.
“I still remember seeing him bring my sister out of the rubble. She was like a limp rag. She was bleeding from head to toe,” says Lloyd.

Then their dad Bill went back and saved a co-worker. Bill still lives in Chippewa Falls- he's 102 years old.

Mary was the first tornado victim admitted to Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls. She spent the next eight summers having surgery. People all over the country sent her cards. Today, she still worries when she sees storm clouds gathering.

“This past Monday night, June 4, 7or 7:30, was the most unbelievable night of my life to have that day pop up. The number four, at that time of day, and the storm, oh mercy. I thought, ‘Oh boy, it's 50 years back again,’” she says.

Lloyd also still thinks about the storm- he remembers coming outside after the tornado, and seeing a telephone pole stuck through their car.

Coming up tomorrow night (June 7), we'll hear from another survivor. The tornado took more from John Butak than from anyone else. It killed his wife and two children just a few feet away from where he was trapped under his barn. He's 89 now and still lives on the same farm.

Here's a look at some serious June twisters in our past:

107 years ago next week, the state's worst tornado hit the St. Croix County town of New Richmond. It killed 117 people and injured 125 people. Back in 1865, on June 28, a tornado that ripped through Viroqua and Hillsboro killed 24 and injured 100.

On June 6th and 7th of 1984, Barneveld, in Iowa County, saw an F-5 twister that killed 9 and injured 200. June of 1993 had the most tornados on record- a total of 28. A tornado in Siren hit in June of 2001 killing three.

A destructive storm hit near Warrens on June 24 of 2004. It blew a semi truck off Interstate 94 and damaged several homes.