LAKE DELTON — Lake Delton, a 267-acre water playland for thousands of tourists each summer, drained Monday after a portion of the sandy lakeshore was breached following heavy rains and took four houses with it.

"The lake is gone," said Greg Matthews, a spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources' South Central region. No injuries were reported.

The dam itself held, but a section of shoreline did not, washing out Highway A and creating a 400- to 500-foot wide outlet to the Wisconsin River, 700 feet away. A swirling chocolate malt of angry liquid escaped through the gap, spreading into the marsh and carrying houses, trees and an upside-down pontoon boat with it.

"That house had everything you can imagine and now it's all gone," said Don Kubenik, of suburban Milwaukee, whose $500,000, 2,800-square-foot second home he built in 2003 was one of those that snapped into pieces Monday. "My boat's gone. The pier's gone. Everything is gone."

Meanwhile, several area schools canceled classes today for the second day in a row as the region grappled with flooding. Schools in the Columbus, Fall River and River Valley districts called off classes.

And more rain was possible again today, according to the National Weather Service.

On Monday, as the nearly 700 million gallons of water in Lake Delton surged downstream, DNR officials worried about other dams and levees. The dam that holds back Mirror Lake was watched closely all day but held and was out of danger by late Monday, Matthews said, assuring the popular Mirror Lake State Park would retain its scenic lake.

Gov. Jim Doyle vowed the state would work to replenish the lake, which is normally about 8 feet deep and is surrounded by about 20 resorts.

State Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, who represents part of the Wisconsin Dells, said the lake's disappearance would be devastating to the local economy and to tourism.

"I think it's a catastrophe," he said. "There's a large amount of physical damage here and when you add that up with the economic impact, it's going to be enormous."

Watched in disbelief

Residents along Lake Delton watched in disbelief Monday morning as their lake vanished, as surely as though someone had pulled a plug.

Mark Tylka witnessed the lake's disappearing act from Cliffside Resort and Suites, which his parents own on Lake Delton. He said he walked down to the lake at about 10:30 a.m. and the resort's docks were under water from the weekend rains. Suddenly, the floodwaters started dropping.

"Within 20 minutes of when I got there, it had gone down 16 inches," said Tylka. He said he watched amazed as furniture, docks and a pontoon boat floated by on the receding waters.

"We lost about 2 feet in 45 minutes, and it kept going and going," said Kate Jesa who, with her family, owns Delton Oaks Resort on Hiawatha Drive on the former lakeshore of this popular tourist destination.

The resort was at half-capacity, about 15 families, when the rain started Saturday at noon and didn't quit until 10 p.m. Sunday. By that time, the water was about 5 feet above normal and the generally placid pool was a rending, twisting brown ribbon.

From the back yard of Jesa's resort Monday afternoon, the lake's tree stumps and a host of old concrete anchors could be seen. One boy was pulling a small kayak along the middle of the old Duck Creek channel.

Cranes stood serenely, barely wetting their tail feathers, in what was once several feet of water, a body that supported the famous Wisconsin Dells Ducks and provided the ramp-up speed path for Tommy Bartlett's ski show.

At midday Monday, the Wisconsin Ducks outlets were closed, as was Tommy Bartlett's. Jesa said she was waiting for the smell to begin.

"This was about as much an act of God as you can get," said Jesa, noting that their two piers were high and dry and a tall water sled sat incongruously.

DNR shocked

Russ Rasmussen, director of watershed management for the DNR, said DNR officials were as shocked as everyone else at the loss of the lake. He said the dam across Duck Creek had been inspected and did hold during the flood, though water was flowing around it. Embankments on either side of such dams aren't inspected, however, so any weaknesses there would not necessarily be apparent. And the area that was washed away was a considerable distance from the dam itself.

Rasmussen said restoring the lake will be more involved than simply filling in the new channel. "Whatever goes in there will have to be built to dam standards," he added.

By Monday afternoon, the new channel that funneled the lake into the Wisconsin River had become as much an attraction as anything else in the venerable tourist area. Located at the end of Bowman Road, through a nature area on a narrow dead-end street, the area drew a small but steady stream of people.

Dionne Leonhardt was in a boat on the Wisconsin River near the new channel and couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"It was absolutely mind-blowing," Leonhardt said. "There were pontoon boats coming through like toys. ... And trees were falling down like they were just toothpicks."

State Journal reporter Sandy Cullen contributed to this report.