Water washes away homes, forces evacuations in Wisconsin

June 8, 2008
Photographer states :: Supercell moving through Racine, WI.

I don't care how strong a swimmer anyone is, they are not going to live through that current.

No swimmer, no rescue worker can survive that current.

There is a whirlpool right there in the picture and two levels of water. The left side of the photo has a higher level of water than the right and there is a ripple to prove it. The current here is strong and unpredictable. This isn't just a 'flooded street,' it is now part of the river with obstacles adding to the unpredictable nature of the water movement.

When that house breaks loose from its foundation violently or pieces of it start to float away, that will add to the danger.

June 8, 2009
Mason City, Iowa
Photographer states :: I am standing on the north side of the No Carolina Ave bridge and this was a house on the east or right side of the street that was directly in the path of the heavy currents coming across the road.


June 9, 2008
Mason City, Iowa
Photographer :: On Sunday June 8th,2008, Mason City, Iowa had probably it's worst flood in it's history! Areas were flooded that have never been flooded in the history of the town. This photo is of 12th St NE looking east. The river is way back in the trees. The water is approx 4 to 6 feet deep thruout the area. Here is an automotive shop and a car wash not too far from the river. You can bet these cars won't be running for a while. Once the river went over the banks the flooding happened very quickly and left little time to get belongings out!

The REAL nightmare to this story is that the couple taking the pictures are 'cut off' from an evacuation route. What are they still doing there? Don't tell me it didn't look that bad when the creeks, rivers and streams were already swollen. There are earthen dams cracking and people in their right minds don't do this to themselves. Now, what in God's name is everyone thinking?


June 8, 2008
Ontario, Wisconsin
Photographer states :: Here is a picture of the flood in Ontario, WI, taken by my wife. What started off as a manageable rise in the waters turned into a nightmare.

Now is not the time to clean out drainage ditches. The water is going to wash more debris into the ditch no matter how fast one tries to shovel it out. Now, that 'stuff' that he is shoveling out of the ditch will simply be washed right back into it. People need to stop trying to 'save the moment' and evacuate. This is senseless activity when the creeks are rising ! The dog shouldn't be drenched to the bone like that.


June 8, 2008
Ontario, Wisconsin
Photographer states :: Cleaning out the drainage ditch in front of our house in the storm that brought us 6 of the 10 plus inches of rain in two days.


June 8 and 9, 2008
Flooding in Ontario, Wisconsin

By RYAN J. FOLEY , Associated Press
Last update: June 9, 2008 - 5:41 PM
LAKE DELTON, Wis. - Floodwater from days of rainstorms washed out an earthen dam and sent a 245-acre lake rushing into the Wisconsin River Monday, ripping homes from the shore and sending them floating downstream.
The overflow happened as authorities ordered evacuations and sandbagging in a number of towns across the southern portion of the state.
Lake Delton, a manmade lake and popular tourist spot south of the Wisconsin Dells, overflowed and emptied out Monday afternoon. Three homes were washed away and two others were torn apart.
Gov. Jim Doyle vowed the state would work to replenish the lake.
About 100 people started sandbagging at 2 a.m. Monday, but water drained into the nearby Wisconsin River after the embankment topped by a county road gave way, state and village officials said.
"It's horrible. There's no way we could stop it," said Thomas Diehl, a Lake Delton village trustee. "The breach is between 300 and 400 feet wide. The volume (of water) was just so great there wasn't anything anyone could do."...


Lake Delton, Wisconsin


WISCONSIN DELLS Wisconsin Dells, Columbia and Sauk Counties. August, 1966.

Altitude 7,500 ft. (Water runs downhill.)

This view to the NNE reveals the city of Wisconsin Dells at right center, a portion of the Lower Dells of the Wisconsin River at lower right, and the Upper Dells at upper center. Highway 13 angles across the upper right. The Upper Dells, a narrow gorge as little as 100 feet in width in places, was created when the waters of Glacial Lake Wisconsin cut a new channel through weak Cambrian Sandstone here about 14,000 years ago as it emptied southwestward into the lower Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers. The communities of Wisconsin Dells and adjacent Lake Delton (lower left) appear relatively undeveloped in this 1966 photograph, but today numerous amusement parks and recreational businesses make it the prime tourist- oriented locale in Wisconsin.


A home near the 254-acre Lake Delton in Lake Delton, Wisconsin was damaged when flood waters breached the bank and drained the lake Monday, June 9, 2008. Floodwater washed away three houses and threatened dams in Wisconsin as military crews joined desperate sandbagging operations to hold back Indiana streams surging toward record levels. (click here)


The stage area for the Water Ski shows on Lake Delton in Lake Delton, Wis., now sits on the lake bottom after flood waters breached the bank and drained the lake Monday, June 9, 2008. Heavy rains over the weekend have contributed to flooding in a number of Wisconsin areas.

The slowest Belmont Stakes on Record was the first in 1867 with a time of 3:05. But, this one has more injuries than any on record that I am aware.

To begin with, I love horses. Always have. For my Second Chritmas being born to a Roman Catholic Family my father bought an American Flyer Train (which I still own, by the way) and placed it under the tree in working condition. It was a fabulous Christmas Morning with every 'starry-eyed' expectation in place by two relatively new parents. As I ran to the living room to see what Santa had left a 'very good girl' I stated, "...but, where is my horse?"

With that my Father called my Grandfather who was due for dinner later that day and they spent the rest of the morning into the afternoon making a wooden rocking horse in my Grandfather's basement. The 'horse' was in place by bedtime that Christmas and never again did my parents 'assume' my expectations in life would be filled by their insight.

Kindly note, "Big Brown's big ears" vs. the ears of the number 6 horse and winner, Da’ Tara. You know, the public goes to see movies like "The Horse Wisperer" (click here) and come away with a greater love of animals, horses and the role people play with the species. Some might call it compassion, but, I have never known a jockey at the top of the practice to be anything except a person with more insight to his mount than any other.

Big Brown was in 'fit condition' that day, but, he wasn't interested in running. As an admirer of nature, conservation and the species one finds at most danger to protect, the Throughbred industry needs to look at its lack of ability to protect the species.

One doesn't know what the destruction of a filly that was running hard at his side in the Kentucky Derby does to a stallion on his way to greatness. To many, Big Brown was 'the sure bet' and possibly the 'guaranteed mortgage payment,' to others they were about to witness history as though a 'magic moment' was guaranteed to them because the colt had managed to finish at the top of the field in the Derby and Preakness. But, to me and I believe to his jockey, Big Brown had lost heart that day. Lining up next to more horses in a starting gate that had lead him to achieve a quarter crack in his hoof, 'the fall' of a filly that race beside him and more fuss over 'his soundness' than any horse in recent history at a starting gate, Big Brown had had enough to cause him to run, but, without the 'heart' to win.

Animals are funny and you never know exactly what their thoughts are, but, that day, Big Brown had fallen off 'his personal best' and what Kent Desormeaux decided about the 'already' Champion colt under him, as probably was discussed with his trainer before the race, is that at the top of a 'stretch run' to a Triple Crown Victory, he wasn't about to be 'the fool' that would cause the destruction of still another throughbred race horse.

Big Brown did the right thing. He measured himself before he entered the starting gate and had decided, "I ain't doin' this no more and no one can make me either." He lost heart. He worried about his leg, his wins and the reality of a dead filly. He made history on Saturday in a very different way. As a Champion owned by a group of people that never even stroked his sleek neck, he wasn't going to be 'the fool' that would 'play the game without a brain in his head.' Indeed, Big Brown is a champion. A champion that had had enough and wasn't interested in anything else on Saturday except making it to the finish line with four legs and hooves to walk on.

Take 'that one' to the bank !


Big Brown, right, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, was trying to become the 12th Triple Crown champion and the first since Affirmed in 1978.


"He was in no way, shape or form lame or sore," said Desormeaux, who was the only member of the Big Brown camp to answer questions immediately after the race.