Flash Flood — La Crosse, Wisconsin

2017-07-20 · near Stevenstown, La Crosse, Wisconsin

Event narrative

Heavy rains, with totals of 6 to 8 inches, produced flash flooding across La Crosse County. The Shelby Fire Department had to evacuate people along County Road M in the township of Greenfield. Some of these evacuations had to be made by boat. Other rescues had to be made along Kammell Coulee Road southeast of St. Joseph. County Road U was closed between Bangor and Rockland due to flooding along Fish Creek. Flood waters along Mormon Creek washed out the approaches to both sides of a bridge on Breidel Coulee Road south of Barre Mills. Some streets in Onalaska were washed out or completely underwater. Numerous streets in the city of La Crosse were underwater causing a giant sinkhole to form near Myrick Park. Every state and county highway, with the exception of Interstate 90 and U.S. Highway 53, sustained some damage. At least 60 township roads across the county were closed or impacted by flood waters. In Bangor, flood waters from Dutch Creek washed away the pedestrian walking bridge in Veterans Memorial Park. Boats on Lake Neshonoc broke loose from their moorings and became lodged against the dam. All the trails in the Hixton Forest suffered erosion damage that caused holes and blowouts to form. The damage to the trails caused a mountain bike race course to be limited to trails that stayed on top of the bluffs. A bike trail along Halfway Creek near Holmen was washed out in several places with other damage caused by logjams and debris in the water.

Wider weather episode

After a round of severe thunderstorms moved across western Wisconsin, a second round of thunderstorms developed over much of the same area during the late evening of July 19th into the early morning of the 20th. These storms produced torrential rains with rainfall totals of 6 to 8 inches common from northern Buffalo County southeast into Richland and Grant Counties. Arcadia (Trempealeau County) was hit the hardest as all roads into town were closed and water rescues had to be performed. Residents of the town of Greenfield (La Crosse County) had to be evacuated from flood waters along Mormon Creek. Some of these evacuations had to be made using a boat. A mudslide covered part of State Highway 37 north of Alma (Buffalo County), flood waters from the Kickapoo River closed State Highways 33 and 131 in Ontario (Vernon County) and flood waters from the Pine River closed State Highway 80 north of Richland Center (Richland County). The Governor of Wisconsin declared a state of emergency for Buffalo, Crawford, Grant, Jackson, Juneau, La Crosse, Monroe, Richland, Trempealeau and Vernon Counties. A federal disaster declaration was made for Buffalo, Crawford, Grant, Jackson, La Crosse, Monroe, Richland, Trempealeau and Vernon Counties.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (44.0706, -91.1511)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 710357. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.