A river runs through it

Flooding causes family to evacuate home
By: 
Miriam Nelson
mnelson@newmedia-wi.com

When March temperatures creep into the 50s while the ground is still frozen, the melting snow causes flooding. That’s what happened March 13 as the National Weather Service issued a flood watch for several parts of the state, including Shawano County.

Wittenberg homeowner Melissa Anderson had so much flooding in her yard and garage that she and her family had to evacuate.

“I told my kids to grab what’s important to them,” Anderson said. She took her 15-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son across town to safety at the home of her parents, Dean and Judy Anderson.

Dean Anderson, who serves on the Wittenberg Village Board, said he thinks a partially blocked culvert near his daughter’s house contributed to the flooding, and he brought his tractor with a scoop to help clear her yard.

“I was pushing away water as high as the hood of a car,” said Anderson, who estimates that he pushed about 150,000 gallons of water off the property. “I don’t have a big tractor, but the scoop was overflowing every time I moved some water.”

To help redirect the flood water toward a creek, Anderson cleared away a 4-foot snowbank near his daughter’s house. He said that when he arrived at 5 p.m. Thursday, there was about 2 feet of water in her yard, with a foot of standing water in her garage. He was able to get that amount down to 6 inches in her garage, he said.

His daughter is grateful. “He saved my house,” she said.

Like most policies, Anderson’s insurance doesn’t cover the ground water situations, and it’s too early to say what the total damage will be. Anderson said her two lawnmowers, drum set and golf clubs are most likely beyond repair, as is an entryway Dean Anderson built for them last summer, which will need to be replaced.

Still, Anderson said she’s grateful that she and her children are safe, and that they have a home to go back to. It could be much worse.

“I never thought anything like this would happen,” Anderson said. “I really feel for the flood victims in Plover and elsewhere who lost everything.”

One block away, Joel Yaeger, head of the Wittenberg Water and Sewer Department, worked Friday to redirect flood waters in the streets to a nearby swamp. While noting that his department has not had a lot of calls this year, he said he and assistant Larry Stark helped Shawano County by opening a blocked culvert on County Road M near the Wittenberg Elementary and Middle School.

According to Yaeger, culverts and drains can get frozen and blocked during the winter, and then flooding occurs when the snow starts to melt. But this isn’t an every-March experience, he said.

“Last year at this time, we were sweeping streets,” Yaeger said.

Roger Schneider, owner of the True Value Hardware store, reported brisk business last week. He sold out of his five wet/dry vacuums. He also sold all of his seven different types of sump pumps, but he will have more in stock this week.

“It’s difficult to decide just how much inventory of this type to carry,” said Schneider, noting the unpredictability of Mother Nature. “You can end up carrying $7,000-$10,000 of product you might not sell.”