Storm clouds pass over the town of Raymond, northwest of Racine, late Sunday.
Posted on 06/09/2008 5:52:38 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
GAYS MILLS, WI -- Another wave of severe thunderstorms pounded the southern half of Wisconsin Sunday, creating flash floods, forcing evacuations and dredging up nightmares of flooding not even a year past.
Reports of flooding came in across a 150-mile swath of the state, from the Milwaukee suburbs of Oak Creek and Cudahy to parts of Crawford, Dane and Vernon counties.
The National Guard from Fort McCoy also was called in to help Vernon County emergency personnel evacuate about 50 people from a trailer park in Ontario that was flooded, said Jane Larsen, a spokeswoman for Wisconsin Emergency Management.
Residents in low-lying areas of Elroy and Mauston in Juneau County were told to evacuate due to high water and mud slides near the swollen Wisconsin River.
Forecasts called for more rain, and state emergency officials urged people across southwestern Wisconsin to be ready to run, too. Vernon County got 8.2 inches of rain between 9 a.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday.
The storms triggered horrible memories for people in the rural area still struggling to recover from flash-flooding last August. Those floods sent entire houses sliding into highways, washed out roads and forced many to flee in the middle of the night.
On Sunday blinding sheets of rain transformed the Kickapoo River into an angry rush of taffy-colored water and officials warned it could crest 6 feet over flood stage sometime Monday.
Gravel driveways and dirt roads became avalanches. Great muddy lakes covered farm fields. Bluffsides disintegrated, covering roads with trees, rocks and branches.
The area's small towns have become isolated islands. Roads leading into La Farge were all but blocked, Viola was unreachable and low-lying areas of Soldiers Grove and Gays Mills were underwater -- again, officials said.
"It's exhausting," said Barb Edge, 50, who lives on the edge of the Kickapoo in Soldiers Grove. She said her house suffered $9,000 worth of damage in August. "We just got the damage repaired. It's just horrible."
Monte Sheldon, 47, and his wife, Caroline, got ready to leave their house about 4 miles outside Virquoa. The rain had washed out a portion of his yard only moments before, ripping out his trees and depositing them across the highway.
They had to flee in August, too, he said.
"It's getting pretty old," he said. "It ain't normal."
In Gays Mills, a village of 625 people about 105 miles northwest of Madison, the Kickapoo covered the village park and was still rising. Residents scrambled to fill sandbags and barricade downtown businesses and basement windows; the river flooded the village's downtown last August, and no one wanted a repeat performance.
"This is like a waiting game now," said Pat Brockway, a member of the village board. "The worst is yet to come."
Small evacuations were starting in Columbia County as well, while authorities assessed flood damage in Sauk and Milwaukee counties, Wisconsin Emergency Management spokeswoman Lori Getter said. Up to another 4 inches of rain were expected through Sunday night and early Monday.
The Wisconsin State Patrol sent troopers to northeast Grant and southeast Vernon counties to survey bridges and roads for damage, and the Department of Natural Resources were closely monitoring two dams for potential problems.
In Milwaukee County, authorities opened up a disaster hot line for residents to report damages, sewer backups and flooding. A dozen two-man sewer crews were sent out to deal with manhole covers that had blown off the streets.
The suburb of Wauwatosa opened up an emergency operations center due to flooding there, while in the suburb of Cudahy officials estimated damage at $2.3 million already.
In the suburb of Oak Creek, Mayor Richard Bolender declared a state of emergency. Authorities shut down a number of the city's main roads due to rain and flooding from Saturday night's rain.
Milwaukee got 6.5 inches of rain between 9 a.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday. Brookfield got about 8 inches over that span, leaving waist-deep water in spots.
John Dlugoenski, an AccuWeather meteorologist, said the storms have stayed over Wisconsin and other parts of the Midwest because strong high pressure in the atmosphere to the east stalled a cold front.
"It's like running into a wall," he said. "When the front is not moving fast or far, storms continue to 'train' and run along the same track over and over again. That's pretty much been all weekend long."
The National Weather Service confirmed Sunday that two tornadoes touched down on Saturday. One was rated an EF1 in La Crosse County, while a second was rated EF2 in Columbia County.
The stronger tornado contained winds of up to 120 mph and moved for 18 minutes on the ground along an eight-mile path, causing minor injuries to five people.
We're OK, we're on a hill, but the fields around us have standing water in them and a road I use to get to work was closed for most of the day, yesterday. We had a total of a few hundred in sales at the Garden Center yesterday; normally, a Sunday in early June would see sales in the tens of thousands.
I'm sick of being wet. I'm sick of picking up blown over trees and plants. But mainly, I'm sick of the smell of wet dog, LOL!
Storm clouds pass over the town of Raymond, northwest of Racine, late Sunday.
Boaters paddle on a flooded street Sunday near E. Forest Hill and S. 15th avenues in Oak Creek. The boaters were later warned by Oak Creek police to stay out of the floodwaters because they could be dangerous.
Despite warnings, this motorist chooses to drive down a flooded street on the southside of Waukesha and somehow is successful.
Flooding blows off a manhole at the intersection of Fond du Lac Ave and North Sherman Blvd.
Hang in there. It WILL stop raining. Cource it’ll start snowing instead.
Two vacant buildings that once housed the Acapulco restaurant and bar at S. 6th St. and W. National Avenue collapsed this afternoon in heavy rains.
Storms, flooding cause 8 deaths, damage from Midwest to East
Associated Press
Posted: June 9, 2008
The wicked weekend storms that pounded Wisconsin flooded communities from the Midwest to the East Coast and killed at least eight people.
In Michigan, two delivery workers for The Grand Rapids Press drowned early Sunday when their car became submerged in a creek that washed out a road near Lake Michigan in Saugatuck Township, the newspaper said.
Two other people in the state were killed by falling trees, one man drowned, and a woman died when high winds blew a recreational vehicle on top of her, authorities said.
In Indiana, rescuers in boats continued to pluck people from rising waters Sunday, a day after more than 10 inches of rain deluged much of the state. At least one person died, a man who drowned in his vehicle about 50 miles south of Indianapolis, a state official said. Another person was reported missing after falling off a boat about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis.
In Iowa, pumps and thousands of sandbags were sent to the Iowa City area, where officials fear a reservoir could top a spillway and flood the city of about 63,000 by Tuesday.
In Connecticut, lightning struck a pavilion at a state park, killing one person and injuring four.
In Nebraska, at least one tornado hit the Omaha area with little to no warning as people slept Sunday morning, damaging several dozen homes and businesses. No major injuries were reported.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=759986
LOL! We’re stuck in the same weather pattern we were in all winter when this was 100” of SNOW, versus what FEELS like 100” of rain. :(
At least my 300’ well will be full for the next ten years! :)
Goog gravy, girl.............stay safe.
I remember when you got flooded out two, maybe three years ago?
Later on this summer you need to send tomatoes! :)
Actually, my garden plants look OK for now. They may start turning a bit yellow if we don’t have some dry weather, but what can you do? And this certainly isn’t effecting the WEEDS at all; lots of healthy thistles around. Grrrrrr!
I feel bad for Antony (I took over his job this year) who is starting his first season as a self-supporting Market Farmer. I’ll have to call him to see how he’s doing, because he’s in a low-lying area and it can’t be pretty!
I grew up in Reedsburg and my Mom’s Parents were in Wonewoc. I can just about imagine looking out my Grandparents kitchen window across the track towards the Baraboo River. That whole cow pasture must be under water about now!
Personally, I prefer it too wet over too dry. Everything’s so green and the birds are stuffing themselves with mosquitos.
That is a good point. See? There’s always a Silver Lining!
I guess my brother won’t be chopping haylage any time soon, eh?
Everything around here is yellow -— except for the weeds!!!!!
If it weren’t for weeds, I would have nothing green.
I guess Sue is right, I really should plant rice, maybe, just maybe it will quit raining and the temps will return to normal :)
EWW! Wet dog! Our kitty has the good sense (and indoor “facilities”) to stay out of the rain!
Daughter is taking care of my grandson today and tomorrow - Colubus schools closed for flooding, so she’s getting more time with him that planned. My son had a conference, and I got sick, so couldn’t take care of him.
FIL lives in between La Farge & Viola. Half of their land is underwater, but they have their home at the top of the hill, so they’re okay.
Sump pump ran most of the night. Sure is NOISY! We have an underground spring, that is only a problem in heavy rains.
I see on wkowtv.com, Sauk County officials are asking people to stay off of ALL the roads.
It’s not fun. I’m predicting lots of property damage and lots of street & drainage repairs needed in lots of our little Cow Towns.
http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/full_loop.php
We might be spared today, but if that “blob” moves a tiny hair north, we’re in for it again.
(For DU Lurkers who don’t know where the “Midwest” is, move the map to the right, LOL!)
It’s flooding from Iowa all the way to Ohio. Portions of Indiana got 12 inches of rain in four hours Saturday. Rivers there are reaching highs not seen since 1913.
Stay safe, Diana!
I feel for you. Been there, done that! We don’t have any hills here, but pretty much everybody has a boat! LOL
I’ve often wondered if the reason there weren’t big cities, etc here when the white men came is because the weather was jsut too unpredictable/unstable. Maybe we’ve just been living in a fool’s paradise and things are getting back to “normal”. The natives were certainly smart enough—maybe smarter than we are!
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