Flash Flood — Juneau, Wisconsin

2018-08-28 · near Union Center, Juneau, Wisconsin

Event narrative

Runoff from heavy rain caused extensive flooding to occur in Elroy from the Baraboo River. Between 25 and 30 homes had to be evacuated. Numerous homes had water several inches to a few feet deep in the basements. Nine homes likely will have to be torn down. Damages in Elroy totaled nearly $6.5 million. The flooding along the Baraboo River also hit Wonewoc hard causing officials to evacuate the western half of the town. Dozens of homes had water in the basements with at least 4 of them suffering collapsed walls. Flooding along the Lemonweir River near Mauston caused Interstates 90/94 to be closed in both directions and washed out a rail line that caused the eastbound Amtrak Empire Builder to be stopped near Tomah. Passengers had to remain on the stopped train overnight until repairs to the rail line were completed. Flooding in Mauston damaged some homes with at least one a total loss when a basement wall collapsed. Flood waters from Webster Creek covered portions of State Highway 80 between New Lisbon and Elroy. State Highway 33 was under water in places between Union Center and Wonewoc because of flood waters from the Baraboo River. State Highway 82 was closed between Elroy and Mauston due to flood waters from Cleaver Creek. Portions of State Highway 58 south of Mauston was covered in flood waters from Onemile and Stewart Creeks. U.S. Highway 12 was closed between Mauston and Lyndon Station because of flooding on the Lemonweir River. County highways across the southern part of the county that were closed included: N, G, HH and FF. Numerous local and township roads were also closed.

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 → (43.6400, -90.3100)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 778172. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.