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Mudslides, monsoons and more: State reeling from storms

Bill Novak  —  6/13/2008 10:00 am

Severe weather Thursday on top of monsoon rains last weekend turned southern Wisconsin into a quagmire, with roads and bridges washed out, entire towns and villages under water and emergency shelters set up throughout the area to aid people driven from their homes as well as motorists stranded by the rising waters.

The 6 a.m. report Friday from Wisconsin Emergency Management is a sobering picture of just how serious the situation is throughout the state.

In Dane County, seven tornado warnings were issued Thursday night for parts of the county with two funnel clouds apparently touching down, one between Cambridge and Stoughton and another southwest of Cambridge, but the tornadoes caused little damage and no injuries.

The Dane County Sheriff's Office had to provide escort to three school buses coming back from a school year-ending field trip for Toki Middle School students to Sauk County, when impassable roads cut off the normal route the buses would have taken.

"The deputies met up with the buses and guided them on a safe path home," said Dane County Emergency Management spokesman J. McLellan.

Grant County in the southwest corner of Wisconsin was one of the hardest-hit counties.

Substantial damage from Thursday's severe storms was reported in the Grant County communities of Lancaster, Potosi, Tennyson, Ellenboro, Stitzer, Livingston and Beetown, with several homes in the town of Potosi destroyed by floods, farm buildings destroyed by wind, a home near Union blown away by a reported tornado, most rural roads in five towns rendered impassable, and many rural bridges either washed away or suffering substantial damage.

In Iowa County, a 15-foot section of railroad track washed out west of Avoca, while almost the entire village of Avoca is flooded. Residents had to be evacuated by boats.

Portage in Columbia County was nailed by more than four inches of rain, resulting in mudslides and people needing to be rescued from their cars in Pardeeville.

In Sauk County, amphibious vehicles from the Original Wisconsin Ducks tourist attraction in Wisconsin Dells were called into action to help rescue stranded residents in Baraboo, while shelters were opened in Sauk City, Reedsburg, LaValle and Spring Green.

Marquette County has many impassable roads with evacuations taking place in some locations as a shelter opened in Montello.

In Oshkosh, a railroad bridge washed out on the city's south side, resulting in a train derailment of a locomotive and three railcars, but no one was injured and no hazardous materials were released.

Practically all areas of southern Wisconsin reported damage, either by flood or by wind/tornado.

Baraboo is in a state of emergency, culverts are washed out and many roads flooded in Green Lake County, six homes were damaged by a tornado in Walworth County, two severely damaged power poles threatened to cut power to Soldiers Grove in Crawford County, 60 families were evacuated in Waupun, and a trailer park near Johnson Creek in Jefferson County was evacuated.

Bill Novak  —  6/13/2008 10:00 am