Flood — Ashland, Wisconsin

2016-07-14 · near Marengo, Ashland, Wisconsin

Event narrative

An 82-year-old man from Marengo was found dead in his pickup truck in the flooded waters along the Marengo River near the Riemer Road Bridge west of Marengo. The exact circumstances of how, when, and where he died are not known, only that he was found a few days after the heavy rains some time early Thursday.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (46.4309, -90.8421)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 653540. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.