Flooding expected throughout state

Todd Richmond
Associated Press  —  6/10/2008 2:28 pm

GAYS MILLS -- 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.

Todd Richmond
Associated Press  —  6/10/2008 2:28 pm