2008 flood altered methods for dealing with future floods - Part 2

By Steve Sharp
steves@wdtimes.com

JEFFERSON -- This week marks the 10th anniversary of the great flood that hit Jefferson County's Rock, Crawfish and other smaller rivers, as well as many parts of southern Wisconsin. The impacts of the catastrophic 2008 events can still be seen in places like downtown Jefferson, where the city's very approach to its development has been altered to lessen damage future floods may inflict.

A Daily Times story from June of 2008 quoted then-Jefferson Mayor Gary Myers describing the state of his soggy city. Myers said Jefferson had, what he termed, a "huge concern" about the integrity and safety of its wastewater treatment plant, which was sandbagged to the point it resembled a fortress.
"It appears that overnight, at least temporarily, the river has stopped rising," Myers said one sunny June morning. "It has not receded, but it's stopped rising. We can't let (flood) water in that wastewater treatment plant, because if we lose that facility, we have a catastrophe in the long term."
Southbound bridges in the city -- one at Main Street downtown and the other at Wisconsin Street -- were closed.
"We don't want stress on those bridges, and there is currently water on the girders and we don't want to compound the stress with vehicular weight," Myers said. Wisconsin Drive was open only to emergency vehicles.
City officials and residents of the riverfront watched one morning as an oversized backhoe removed debris that had collected against the upper side of the North Street pedestrian bridge.
"That bridge, with its wooden pilings, has acted as a strainer," Myers said. "It has been catching all the debris from upstream."
Myers noted that enough debris had amassed against the bridge that the aged structure itself was acting as another -- in this case unwelcome -- dam.
"So we've brought in a monster backhoe and we want to get that debris out of the river. It's an incredibly dangerous thing," he said, adding officials feared some large object, such as an old tree or a wayward dock, could float down and wipe out the entire bridge.
"Then that bridge debris could jeopardize the dam below," he said. This, luckily, never happened.
Jefferson City Administrator Tim Freitag recalled this week how the flood stunned him in his early career as administrator, a role in which he is, by ordinance, the municipality's emergency government director.
"You are talking to a pretty good person for this story," Freitag said, "because Jefferson was ground zero for this flood in Jefferson County. I never saw anything close to coming on a par with this flood and I have been doing this type of work for more than 30 years. I've seen bad fires, but nothing of this impact on a community that would last over a several-week period."
Freitag acknowledged Jefferson is an old Wisconsin community and is used to seeing high water on the Rock and Crawfish rivers, but no one had ever witnessed anything like the water levels of 2008.
"And no one had ever seen the river rise at that speed before," he said. "This was feet, not inches, just overnight. Nobody had ever seen that before. This surpassed the old flood record by 2 feet. It's amazing to me."
According to Freitag, the most critical issue for his city was that it had so much infrastructure, such as its wastewater treatment plant and public works department along with electrical substations, in or near the floodplain.
"We had so much critical infrastructure that needed protection. Maybe it was protected from a 100-year flood, but this was a 500-year flood," Freitag said. "We nearly lost our wastewater treatment plant. The water breached the 100-year flood protection berm and that meant we could have been without a wastewater treatment plant for five-six months. The volunteers and plant staff saved the plant. We came within a whisker of losing it."
Freitag said one of the biggest problems presented by floodwaters was that the north and south sides of the city were separated by a moat of dirty, debris-filled river water.
"The hardest thing was getting from the south to the north, because both bridges were closed. So you had medical emergency service problems," he said. "We deployed emergency equipment on both sides of the river and did the best we could. I am amazed we did not have a serious injury. We did not have a contaminated drinking water system. The electric, and I think even phones, stayed on. All that was in the floodplain. We saved our wastewater treatment plant and I am amazed we weathered it all."
It took the better part of a year to put things back together in Jefferson and flood mitigation, at least indirectly, is ongoing. FEMA's aid and a Midwest Flood Recovery Bill were used, with the latter allowing relocation of some business properties downtown. Some buildings like the Jefferson Area Business Center and Heron's Landing on the west side of the Rock River were flood-proofed. The city has also been acquiring and razing properties in the floodplain while creating a prominent retention pond just off Main Street near the river. City officials consistently direct manufacturing and other such businesses to the North Industrial Park, which sits on higher ground, away from the river.
"We were pretty savvy in accessing those funds and those properties, otherwise, would still be down in the floodplain," Freitag said. "If the same flooding event happened today, we would be in a much stronger position, because if the city did not relocate it, we strengthened the protections at places such as the wastewater treatment plant. The public works building was also surrounded by a berm and protected. Most of all, we have the bypass with high bridges, so we could get from the south to the north if need be. We were thankful for the federal assistance the state made available to the 31 counties in 2008, with Jefferson County being one. We accessed a lot of that aid."
Freitag said it's hard to believe that level of financial assistance would ever again be made available, "And we were (wise) enough to take advantage of that."
In addition to shoring up its more expensive electrical infrastructure, Jefferson strengthened river banks.
"We were worried River View Drive would fall into the river and we rip-rapped that and we protected a good stretch of that bank near Nestle's," he said. "There is a much greater level of preparedness on our part. This type of flood will happen again. With more development and runoff, we won't have to wait another 500 years to get a similar event."
Freitag called the flood of 2008 "a special time when the community came together."
"There was a large number of volunteers who filled sandbags to help a neighbor," he said. "The city put out the call and people responded. They came from outside the community if they could get here. They responded. I really can't say enough about the community and the volunteers. The football team came down to help, ministers called for volunteers from the pulpit ... And then you have to feed and cloth all these people and we were able to get that together pretty well for having never done that before."
When he sees reports of terrible flooding in places like North Carolina these days, Freitag said he feels their pain.
"The good thing for us was that we were very lucky that, at our most critical times, it was a weekend and we could get resources and greater numbers of volunteers," he said. "We were dealing with this in June and it was a good thing this was not in March. It was much warmer and even then, we were not dealing with 90-degree, high-humidity days, so the weather was not taxing that way. We were pretty fortunate with the moderate weather."
Other areas of Jefferson County experienced inconveniences, but also some rare humorous moments during the flood. One Daily Times article of the time reads, "The big fish are running and jumping ... the big carp, that is. Heavy rains and flooding have created new feeding and spawning grounds for carp, giving them the opportunity to cause a ruckus in the shallow waters and along newly expanded shorelines. They've also created a ruckus among local fishing enthusiasts."
Another article, from the later stages of the flood, discusses scams being perpetrated in the area.
"It took them a few days, but it looks like scammers have finally found their way to Jefferson. 'Unfortunately, disaster situations like the recent floods attract con artists from across the country,' Kathleen Eisenmann, (then) University of Wisconsin-Extension Jefferson County family living agent, said. 'Some tips from our office should help consumers detect and avoid price gouging, poor workmanship and con artists' scams.'"
The city of Waterloo even saw its precious, historic carousel threatened by rising waters.
"Has it been 10 years?" Jefferson County Emergency Management Director Donna Haugom asked when approached for an interview for this story. "My eye still twitches when people talk about 2008."
Haugom had been in her lead emergency management position since January of 2008, so she had also only been doing her job for six months when Mother Nature unleashed the deluge.
"We just had Emergency Operations Center training in May of 2008, so we knew how to set up the center and who was going to staff it," she said this week. "Initially, I did not feel ready for it, but I had great support from Sheriff Paul Milbrath, the county board and all of Jefferson County's personnel. After we were in it a couple of days, I became more acclimated to my position and how I needed to perform."
Haugom said many people were surprised by the severity of the flooding.
"The phrase I kept hearing was, '(The river) never got that high before,'" she said. "The county was literally cut in half. The Highway 26 Jefferson bypass was in the beginning stages of construction. Jefferson County had a cache of sandbags that were quickly distributed throughout the county. The highway department was a key player in helping deliver sand, fill sandbags and deliver them to the most-affected areas. They were also key in keeping the bridge on Interstate 94 stable. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation had to close the westbound lane of I-94 and create a cross-over, making the eastbound lanes two-way traffic."
Haugom recalled Nestle Purina in Jefferson had to shut down and offered to have their employees help in the call center located in the EOC.
"That was greatly appreciated," she said. "Sheriff Milbrath and his wife, Vicki Milbrath, set up assistance centers to provide necessary supplies for anyone affected by the flooding. We had assistance from the Salvation Army and American Red Cross. The Amateur Radio Emergency Service/Radion Amateur Civil Emergency Service group helped organize sandbagging operations within the county 24/7, so great thanks to them."
For Haugom, many lessons were learned.
"Municipalities quickly accepted the fact they needed to provide sand and sandbags to their residents," she said. "We utilized inmates from minimum security correctional facilities to help sandbag homes. They were a great help. I learned people are very resilient. Neighbors helped neighbors. People who were not affected by the flooding helped sandbag. Walmart provided supplies to the family assistance centers. We were able to utilize the resources of the National Guard. Every municipality stepped up. It wasn't easy for them and we took our lumps along the way. It is difficult. Some people forget. Some people think because it happened, it will not happen again. I believe I have established a good relationship with the emergency management personnel from the area's municipalities and I try to provide information on response and recovery from any emergency."
The effects of the 2008 flood for Haugom and Jefferson County have stretched into years. The county has participated in an acquisition and demolition program of properties that are located within the floodplain, particularly near Black Hawk Island at Fort Atkinson, and has actively pursued relocating people out of the area.
"This has been completed to keep people out of harm's way in their lives and property in the event of another flooding event," she said. "We acquire the structures and demolish them. The property is left as open space. We have acquired more than 125 properties in approximately 24 years. These acquisitions are possible with grant funding from state and federal programs."
Haugom is in constant contact with the hydrologist from the National Weather Service, getting information to become more aware of any flooding concerns. She also monitors the water levels of all the rivers within the county.
Freitag and his city colleagues, including Mayor Dale Oppermann, are also continually watching water levels and weather reports, especially in the spring, while coming up with ideas to further floodproof the city.
"I especially keep my eye on that water," Haugom said.