Flash Flood — Monroe, Wisconsin

2018-08-28 · near Leon, Monroe, Wisconsin

Event narrative

Runoff from heavy rain caused flash flooding to occur across the southern sections of Monroe County. Near Melvina, a resident had to be rescued from a home surrounded by flood waters. Flooding was extreme along the Little La Crosse River along and just east of Highway 27 between Cashton and Sparta where numerous homes were flooded, rescues were needed, and roads were damaged. Flooding along Moore Creek in Norwalk damaged some ballfields and the village office. In Kendall, a park along the Baraboo River was destroyed and a newly installed road to the village's wastewater treatment plant was washed out. Most of the flood damaged homes and business were along Glen Street. Across the county, 75 people had to be evacuated. At the Skogdalen cemetery, 90% of the gravestones markers were toppled, debris was up to 5 feet deep in places and ripped apart the road in front of the church. Numerous roads were closed, with most of these in the far southern part of the county in Portland, Jefferson, Sheldon, Wellington and Glendale Townships. Some of the impacted roads included: County Highway N, County Highway Z south of Wilton, County Highway P near Kendall, County Highway F south of Norwalk, County Highway D near Cashton, County Highway CM near Tomah, State Highway 33 east of Cashton, County Highway W north of Kendall, County Highway ET east of Tomah and County Highway F east of Melvina. The heavy rain and flooding caused three earthen flood control dams to fail and damaged three others.

Wider weather episode

A line of severe thunderstorms moved across western Wisconsin during the evening of August 27th. A brief tornado touched down and had an intermittent damage path between Tomah and Wyeville (Monroe County). The damage was limited to trees and power poles. These storms blew down trees and caused roof damage in Sparta (Monroe County), rolled a camper and damaged several signs near Tomah (Monroe County) and downed trees around Hixton (Jackson County) and in the Town of Cleveland (Jackson County). The storms then became oriented in an east to west line and dumped copious amounts of rain from southern La Crosse County and northern Vernon County east across the southern sections of Monroe, Juneau and Adams Counties. Numerous roads were closed because of flooding or mudslides, homes had to be evacuated with several water rescues were performed. Towns that were hit hard by the flooding included Coon Valley, Ontario (Vernon County), Elroy and Wonewoc (Juneau County). The eastbound Amtrak Empire Builder had to be halted near Tomah because of a washout on the rail line near Mauston (Juneau County). In Monroe and Vernon Counties, four earthen flood control dams failed and seven others sustained damage. Rainfall totals of 6 to 10 inches were common in this heavy rain band with the highest reported totals being 9.14 inches in Union Center (Juneau County) and 9.98 inches near Westby (Vernon County). The runoff later produced historic flooding on the Kickapoo River with several record flood crests established. Damages in Juneau County exceeded $22 million of which $6.5 million was from Elroy. The State of Wisconsin Governor declared a state of emergency for the entire state. A federal disaster declaration was made for La Crosse, Monroe, Juneau, Adams, Vernon, Crawford and Richland Counties.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (43.9100, -90.9100)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 778022. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.