Schools cancel first day because of flooding
Students in several central Wisconsin districts got a reprieve from the start of school on Tuesday because of the state’s historic flooding.
Because of concerns for school buses negotiating flooded and closed roads, officials in Prairie du Chien, Mauston, Montello, Reedsburg, Elroy, Richland Center and Hillsboro either canceled classes on Tuesday or delayed them for several hours.
Montello School District canceled the entire first week of classes because of the closure of Highway 22 next to the flooded Baraboo River, which around one-third of students use to get to school. The Marquette County community has gotten more than 16 inches of rain in the last week.
Meanwhile, more rain was on the way with northwestern Wisconsin in the path. The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings overnight Tuesday into Wednesday.
In the path of highest risk was a swath that included Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls and Medford where forecasters were predicting widespread rains of 4 to 8 inches with the possibility of higher amounts in some spots.
A heavy downpour hit Milwaukee just before 5 p.m. before moving out to Lake Michigan.
Southern Wisconsin could get up to 1 inch overnight Tuesday though localized rainfall amounts could be higher.
Flood warnings remain for several lakes and rivers in southern Wisconsin through Thursday afternoon.
The last few weeks of rain have come courtesy of a persistent flow of heavy, moist air moving up from the Gulf of Mexico into the upper Midwest.
“We’ve been caught in this flow,” said Denny VanCleeve, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Sullivan. “There’s a high-pressure ridge in the east that has kept the curvature of the flow from the Gulf in this area. It’s basically parked here.”
Last month was the second wettest August on record in Madison where a total of 10.4 inches of rain were recorded at the airport, second only to 15.18 inches that fell in 2007. The normal August rainfall in Madison is 4.27 inches. Locally, rainfall amounts were much higher with unofficial reports of as much as 14 inches west of Madison on one day.
Milwaukee’s August rainfall, recorded at Mitchell International Airport, was 5.68 inches and the normal is 3.97 inches.
Roads in several areas throughout the state remain closed Tuesday, a day after Labor Day holiday traffic backed up on Interstate 39 near Portage, where the highway narrowed to a single lane. All I-39 lanes were open on Tuesday.
In Sauk County, where the Baraboo River is flooding, officials were asking on Tuesday for volunteers to fill sandbags. The Reedsburg Police Department reported on social media Tuesday that significant flooding was again possible because of 7 to 8 inches of rain that fell Monday in La Valle. Highway 33 between La Valle and Reedsburg is closed, as is Highway 58 from La Valle.
Veteran-led disaster response organization Team Rubicon sent 42 volunteers to Cross Plains, Black Earth and Mazomanie — among the first communities hit by torrential rains — where they salvaged furniture and possessions from homes as well as removed wet drywall, carpeting, flooring and wood for six days last week, said incident commander Rick Kolomay.
The group of veterans worked a total of 1,800 hours helping those communities in a mission dubbed Operation Muck ‘Em Bucky.
Lake Monona in Madison has swelled to 71⁄2 inches above its 100-year flood elevation.
Following the Tuesday nightWednesday rainfall, there’s good news in the forecast. There’s plenty of sunshine and balmy temperatures throughout most of the state this weekend with highs in the low 70s. Skies will likely be partly cloudy in southern Wisconsin because of remnants of Tropical Storm Gordon pushing into the state, said VanCleeve.