Tornadoes/Flooding/Winds/Lightining: WI Weather Weekend June 6-8 (Milwaukee: RV park, insurance) - Wisconsin - City-Data Forum

EnjoyEP · 06-09-2008, 02:16 PM

I am actually kind of surprised that no one has started a thread like this yet on the WI forums.

What a crazy weather weekend. It started for me (work Downtown Milwaukee and reside in Greendale 8 miles away southwest) while outdoors in Downtown during the workday afternoon on Friday with intense storm clouds coming into the Downtown area and tornado sirens filling the air. Tons of folks Downtown outside of their offices just staring up at the skies. With reports of folks being able to see a funnel cloud near St. Francis from the Hoan Bridge, things were kind of intense.

Then, surely Saturday was crazy, and Sunday wasn't much better.

Fortunately, my home only has a crawl space, not a basement (I am in the minority in WI in that I have learned to be happy to NOT have a basement) and thus, with the exception of a few small leaks in an addition my house has, not real water damage. I am reading of, and hearing of, accounts of so many people with significant water damage / basement flooding etc. - ugh.

Anyone have stories weather-related from the weekend they wish to share? Photos? (I wish I had my camera with me last night...an amazing storm system - really spooky looking - rolled in last night).

Hope everyone stayed safe and relatively dry!!

Nelly Nomad · 06-09-2008, 03:39 PM

Was just watching some news footage of a home in the Dells that was literally swept away. Whole house (and it was a big one, not a little cabin), slid down an embankment and into the rushing water, then carried off downstream.

I can't even imagine what the homeowners must have been feeling

. I hope they are all ok.

I also feel for the kids whose graduations were canceled this weekend. Our son's graduation was Saturday morning and the weather was glorious. By evening, however, we were hunkered down in the basement watching a battery powered TV by flashlight.

What with the rising water, it's not over yet.

UW Badgers · 06-09-2008, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nelly Nomad

Was just watching some news footage of a home in the Dells that was literally swept away. Whole house (and it was a big one, not a little cabin), slid down an embankment and into the rushing water, then carried off downstream.

I can't even imagine what the homeowners must have been feeling

. I hope they are all ok.

I also feel for the kids whose graduations were canceled this weekend. Our son's graduation was Saturday morning and the weather was glorious. By evening, however, we were hunkered down in the basement watching a battery powered TV by flashlight.

What with the rising water, it's not over yet.

We just watched those homes floating away too. I can't imagine either, just awful. We're in Iowa where it's flooded too, especially to the north. Wisconsin is "home" for us and thankfully none of my family is flooded out of their homes. It's just so devestating to see such familiar territory completely submerged in water.

Keeping our thoughts to everyone back home and that you are all safe.

ali&ajsmom · 06-09-2008, 05:01 PM

We were watching the news saw some of the homes floating down the river and my heart just goes out to the homeowners. we were lucky and only lost our first crop of hay which is chump change compared to the ones who have lost there homes. I will continue to keep them in our prayers.

dreamhunter65 · 06-09-2008, 05:43 PM

It all stayed south, the heavy stuff anyways. Up north here we had some rain and then sun this weekend. Guess we are getting the moisture been lacking last few years and the soil cannot handle it all and has to go somewhere.
Hopefully even though just the start of the season not get any worse than already has.
Lightning strike pictures are great as long as careful when do it.

JoshB · 06-09-2008, 08:36 PM

Us residents in Portage are really feeling the effects of the Lake Delton drain. We had parts of homes flowing right past us along the river. The river is very very high. Then you get to the rural areas North of Portage and they never and I mean never flood. This year they did. We had so many bridges out that I lost count. I've never seen anything this bad. We had two tornadoes not to far from here and now we have flooding.

Yikes!

tcs1366 · 06-09-2008, 08:53 PM

We spend most of May - Sept in Lake Delton ... we were actually up there this weekend, but came home early Sunday due to all the rain... and who the heck wants to be in a trailer park [RV Park] during a tornado ... so we bailed.

We are just heart sick by what we have been seeing on the internet [news clips] of the lake, the destruction of homes and what is yet to come... as it all floats down river.

When we were out on Saturday... trying our best to dodge the storms, i did not have my camera with me... wish i would have grabbed it, as we saw the most amazing [scary] cloud formations and torrential rains.

I recall hearing on the radio ... that if you are in a car, to get out and lay in a ditch. DH and I looked out the window thinking... we'd drown as all the 'ditches' were deep running water.

Fields that had no water an hour earlier was a small lake when we were on our way back... this was along Rte 12 from Prairie du Sac, back thru Baraboo and back to Lake Delton.

We will be back up there on Thursday... I'm sure we will go to the lake, that is no longer filled with water.... as one of our favorite restaurants is on the lake... but guess we can't take "A", like we usually do.

JoshB · 06-09-2008, 09:24 PM

These pictures I took today of some flooding areas.
The first one is of a local creek. It usually calm, this is what happens when a dam fails. (Below)

It's a huge mess. My heart goes out to those who are affected by all these weather woes.

EnjoyEP · 06-09-2008, 09:46 PM

The photos and scenes of Lake D. are just incredible indeed. Just amazing.

My only solace to those that lost their homes there is that Lake D. is pretty much an area geared towards vacation homes / second homes. Thus, I believe the homes that were lost were not people's primary homes...their 2nd / getaway homes.

Don't get me wrong. Obviously that is still a tremendous loss. If I owned something as big and beautiful as those homes for a 2nd home on such a scenic setting, beyond the financial impacts of losing a home like that, but also the emotional impacts, it would still be massive. However, at least it isn't like - for some small solace - that those homes were "all those people had"...unlike some of these homes in MKE / Waukesha / Racine / Kenosha Counties where HUGE damage is blowing away people's homes and possessions from such major flooding.

As for Lake D. itself, I am amazed at what happened, and still don't fully comprehend it. For those unfamiliar, this was a big man-made lake. Due to flooding, essentially in a 20 minute span or so, the entire lake drained / washed away. Seriously, pretty much now it is all bare / empty. I have never heard of anything like it. Boats are just now plopped on empty sand. Piers lead to nowhere but a big empty sand bowl. It is incredible.

More rains are projected off-and-on this week. Let's hope that "off" is more the norm. I moved back here in August of this past year when massive flooding was going on, and here we are with another round of massive flooding. It is amazing as the Southwest where I came from could use often moisture so much, and here, we just have had far, far too much over the past 10 months or so.

tcs1366 · 06-09-2008, 10:01 PM

>>we just have had far, far too much over the past 10 months or so.

isn't that the truth... the snow finally melted in April ... our park still had huge snow piles, from being plowed ... still on the ground in the second week of April.
And i had heard they had about 130" of snow this year.

we had tons of damage from the heavy snow ... but insurance is covering most. [Our unit was fine though]

so... the water was just so saturate from ALL the precipitation they've gotten since last November.

Josh -- nice pics.