Wis. neighborhood becomes island as levee weakens
© 2010 The Associated Press
Sept. 27, 2010, 5:30PM
The river was seeping through and surging around a levee protecting the Blackhawk Park neighborhood in the town of Caledonia just southeast of Portage. The only road in was covered by nearly a foot of rust-colored water.
A few homes in the neighborhood's low-lying areas were surrounded by water, but most of the houses stood on high ground and remained untouched Monday afternoon.
Emergency workers asked people to leave on Sunday as the river began to rise after last week's heavy rains overwhelmed rivers. Some 300 people live in the neighborhood, and Columbia County Emergency Management director Pat Beghin said about 25 homes remained occupied.
Beghin said the worst-case scenario was water could wash away the access road, stranding those residents for up to a week.
A century-old earthen dike, part of a 14-mile berm, separates Portage and the neighborhood from the river. But the river rose so high and so forcefully it surged around the dike and poured into the bottom lands around the neighborhood, said Steve Miller, director of the state Department of Natural Resources Bureau of Facilities and Lands.
The rising water chipped away at portions of the berm system Monday afternoon. Much of the levee protects forest and farmland, but a breach in the Blackhawk Park portion could make matters far worse for the neighborhood by potentially washing away the access road.
DNR workers patrolled the length of the berm Monday, using sandbags to control the seepage. Spokesman Greg Matthews said the effort seemed to be working, although he had no estimate on how long the levee might hold.
The woods around Forrest Travis' fishing camp were a bog on Monday. Water rushed across the gravel service road a few steps from his camp, but Travis, a 53-year-old part-time construction worker, said he spent Sunday night at the camp and didn't have any plans to go anywhere.
"I'm not worried about it," Travis said. "It would have to get a lot higher to get where we're standing."
Diana O'Neill, 56, a retired De Forest police officer, evacuated on Sunday. On Monday, she inched her truck along the access road, creating a wake, to get back to her house.
Her place was still dry when she arrived. She grabbed three dozen eggs and her Chicago Bears shirt for the big Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears game on Monday Night Football and inched her way back out. The water was easily an inch higher than when she drove in.
"I'm kind of a risk-taker," she said. "If it wasn't for the road being overrun I would have stayed here. I've got stuff to get done."
The Wisconsin River runs along the outskirts of Portage, a city of about 10,000 people some 40 miles north of Madison that touts itself as "Where the North Begins." The river had overflowed its banks by dozens of feet, pouring onto low-lying roads.
Residents ventured to the water's edge to watch as the river surged by.
Staring at the churning water, Shawn Schweitzer, 39, of Portage, said that usually at this time of the year the water is so low you can nearly drive across the river bottom.
"Now it would be bye, bye," he said as he watched the current swirl and eddy. "I've never seen it move this fast."
In Blackhawk Park, Kevin and Lindsay Remus chose to bundle their 17-month-old daughter, Amanda, and leave Sunday.
Kevin Remus told the Portage Daily Register they decided to leave because the road could soon become impassible. The family went to the American Red Cross reception center at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Portage.
State and local officials were so concerned about the integrity of the 14-mile levee system home owners built in the 1890s, a group was established to study it.
The group recommended in 2007 that because the levee was so unsafe and unable to protect against flooding, property owners should be offered incentives to move.
Community leaders said they needed time to digest the study's findings, and very little has been done to make any changes since the report came out, Miller said.
Beghin says authorities are monitoring other towns along the river where minor flooding has occurred.
National Weather Service hydrologist Bryan Hahn says the Wisconsin River reached a record level of 20.59 feet Monday at 6 a.m. That breaks a previous record of 20.50 set back in 1938.
The river was expected to hold steady through Tuesday, Hahn said, then slowly decline over the next seven days. Forecasters expect the weather to remain dry in the area for the rest of the week, although a flood warning remains in effect in Columbia County.
Water levels in the storm-bloated Big Sioux River in South Dakota were stable Monday after up to 4 inches of rain last week pushed the waterway over its banks along a 50-mile stretch from Brookings to Sioux Falls.
About two dozen homes in Renner, the worst-hit town, were affected by the rare autumnal flood, Renner Fire Chief Mike Schmitz said.
Mike Gillispie, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service, said water levels across Minnehaha County would stay level then start to drop in 24 hours.
Separately, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty reached an agreement with legislators on a special one-day session next month to approve relief money for people affected by floods in that state.
Heavy rain last week caused serious flooding in parts of southern Minnesota. The small towns of Zumbro Falls and Hammond were among the hardest hit.
___
Associated Press Writer Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., contributed to this report.
I first heard about this story on NPR this morning and was blown away. It really reminds me of the movie Evan Almighty when their dam burst. This is a really scary situation considering the scale of things here. With such an old structure that is getting chipped away at, who knows how much more water pressure it will be able to hold? Also it's tough to tell how sound the structure is on the inside of the dam. I would be out of the area ASAP if my home was in danger. If abnormal floods are really increasing (due to global warming, agriculture practices, urbanization or what have you), this problem will only continue to get worse. I would recomend that authorities take what whatever precautions necessary to reduce flooding (and thus pressure) in the area before the dam. Below is a picture of the dam as well as a video of recent flooding in the area.
A few homes in the neighborhood's low-lying areas were surrounded by water, but most of the houses stood on high ground and remained untouched Monday afternoon.
Emergency workers asked people to leave on Sunday as the river began to rise after last week's heavy rains overwhelmed rivers. Some 300 people live in the neighborhood, and Columbia County Emergency Management director Pat Beghin said about 25 homes remained occupied.
Beghin said the worst-case scenario was water could wash away the access road, stranding those residents for up to a week.
A century-old earthen dike, part of a 14-mile berm, separates Portage and the neighborhood from the river. But the river rose so high and so forcefully it surged around the dike and poured into the bottom lands around the neighborhood, said Steve Miller, director of the state Department of Natural Resources Bureau of Facilities and Lands.
The rising water chipped away at portions of the berm system Monday afternoon. Much of the levee protects forest and farmland, but a breach in the Blackhawk Park portion could make matters far worse for the neighborhood by potentially washing away the access road.
DNR workers patrolled the length of the berm Monday, using sandbags to control the seepage. Spokesman Greg Matthews said the effort seemed to be working, although he had no estimate on how long the levee might hold.
The woods around Forrest Travis' fishing camp were a bog on Monday. Water rushed across the gravel service road a few steps from his camp, but Travis, a 53-year-old part-time construction worker, said he spent Sunday night at the camp and didn't have any plans to go anywhere.
"I'm not worried about it," Travis said. "It would have to get a lot higher to get where we're standing."
Diana O'Neill, 56, a retired De Forest police officer, evacuated on Sunday. On Monday, she inched her truck along the access road, creating a wake, to get back to her house.
Her place was still dry when she arrived. She grabbed three dozen eggs and her Chicago Bears shirt for the big Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears game on Monday Night Football and inched her way back out. The water was easily an inch higher than when she drove in.
"I'm kind of a risk-taker," she said. "If it wasn't for the road being overrun I would have stayed here. I've got stuff to get done."
The Wisconsin River runs along the outskirts of Portage, a city of about 10,000 people some 40 miles north of Madison that touts itself as "Where the North Begins." The river had overflowed its banks by dozens of feet, pouring onto low-lying roads.
Residents ventured to the water's edge to watch as the river surged by.
Staring at the churning water, Shawn Schweitzer, 39, of Portage, said that usually at this time of the year the water is so low you can nearly drive across the river bottom.
"Now it would be bye, bye," he said as he watched the current swirl and eddy. "I've never seen it move this fast."
In Blackhawk Park, Kevin and Lindsay Remus chose to bundle their 17-month-old daughter, Amanda, and leave Sunday.
Kevin Remus told the Portage Daily Register they decided to leave because the road could soon become impassible. The family went to the American Red Cross reception center at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Portage.
State and local officials were so concerned about the integrity of the 14-mile levee system home owners built in the 1890s, a group was established to study it.
The group recommended in 2007 that because the levee was so unsafe and unable to protect against flooding, property owners should be offered incentives to move.
Community leaders said they needed time to digest the study's findings, and very little has been done to make any changes since the report came out, Miller said.
Beghin says authorities are monitoring other towns along the river where minor flooding has occurred.
National Weather Service hydrologist Bryan Hahn says the Wisconsin River reached a record level of 20.59 feet Monday at 6 a.m. That breaks a previous record of 20.50 set back in 1938.
The river was expected to hold steady through Tuesday, Hahn said, then slowly decline over the next seven days. Forecasters expect the weather to remain dry in the area for the rest of the week, although a flood warning remains in effect in Columbia County.
Water levels in the storm-bloated Big Sioux River in South Dakota were stable Monday after up to 4 inches of rain last week pushed the waterway over its banks along a 50-mile stretch from Brookings to Sioux Falls.
About two dozen homes in Renner, the worst-hit town, were affected by the rare autumnal flood, Renner Fire Chief Mike Schmitz said.
Mike Gillispie, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service, said water levels across Minnehaha County would stay level then start to drop in 24 hours.
Separately, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty reached an agreement with legislators on a special one-day session next month to approve relief money for people affected by floods in that state.
Heavy rain last week caused serious flooding in parts of southern Minnesota. The small towns of Zumbro Falls and Hammond were among the hardest hit.
___
Associated Press Writer Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., contributed to this report.
I first heard about this story on NPR this morning and was blown away. It really reminds me of the movie Evan Almighty when their dam burst. This is a really scary situation considering the scale of things here. With such an old structure that is getting chipped away at, who knows how much more water pressure it will be able to hold? Also it's tough to tell how sound the structure is on the inside of the dam. I would be out of the area ASAP if my home was in danger. If abnormal floods are really increasing (due to global warming, agriculture practices, urbanization or what have you), this problem will only continue to get worse. I would recomend that authorities take what whatever precautions necessary to reduce flooding (and thus pressure) in the area before the dam. Below is a picture of the dam as well as a video of recent flooding in the area.
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