Flood in Bayfield County, Wisconsin

An 84-year-old Illinois man died when his car became partially submerged into floodwaters along a ditch along County Highway M, about 3 miles east of Cable. The man and his 84-year-old wife were attempting to turn around after encountering a washed out section of the Highway near the Namekagon River, but accidentally backed up into the flooded ditch. The man drowned, but a firefighter saved the wife.

Thunderstorms brought heavy rain to northwest Wisconsin early Monday, July 11th which helped to saturate the soil. During the day a strong low level jet pumped very moist air into the region. The jet and a west to east stationary front were the triggers for thunderstorms that developed later in the day. Rounds of thunderstorms brought some damaging winds to parts of northwest Wisconsin late Monday afternoon and evening. These storms were followed by evening storms that began training as the night wore on. The training storms resulted in very heavy rain over the region. Historic flooding followed the extremely high average rainfall amounts of 4 to 8 inches. There was a wide corridor of about 8 to 10 inches of rain from northern Iron County to northern Burnett County, including Saxon Harbor on Lake Superior, and the towns of Marengo, Cable, Hayward, Wascott, Minong, and Danbury. The initial squall line of storms brought down many trees. The effects of the wind and a raging, flooded Oronto Creek caused enormous damage at Saxon Harbor. At Saxon Harbor, where 70 vessels were moored, 6 boats sank and the rest were set afloat. Most vessels were recovered. One man drowned in these floodwaters. The Bad River, which flows north through Ashland County into Lake Superior, set a new record, with the river level at Odanah reaching around 27.3 feet Tuesday morning, shattering the previous record of 22.2 feet set on June 24th, 1946. The Bad River Tribe of the Lake Superior Chippewa was totally cut off by the floodwater for days.

Total damage to roads and public infrastructure across northern Wisconsin was $35 million. In Ashland County, road washouts and bridge repair costs were estimated at $2 to $4 million. Washburn County damage was about $2.5 million. The Bad River Band of Ojibway had $2.3 million damage to roads. Forty-three miles of roads were damaged and closed on tribal land.

The Wisconsin governor declared states of emergency for the following counties: Iron, Ashland, Bayfield, Douglas, Burnett, Washburn, Sawyer, and Price. The President later declared disasters for all of the same counties, except for Price. The USDA secretary declared the following counties agricultural disaster areas due to destroyed crops or sharply reduced yields: Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland, Iron, Washburn, Sawyer and Price.