UPDATED Friday, August 8 --- 10:15pm
LAKE DELTON, Wis. (AP) -- Cleanup is set to begin Monday along the Wisconsin River, where debris clogged the waterway after a breach at Lake Delton destroyed five homes in June.
A nonprofit group called Living Lands and Waters has been awarded a $77,000 contract to manage the cleanup.
The state Department of Natural Resources says the group is very aggressive about water cleanup, and was especially aggressive about seeking out the DNR.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is paying 75 percent of the cost. State and local communities will cover the rest.
The cleanup is expected to take about 25 days.
The breach in the lake June 9 sent water rushing to the Wisconsin River, destroying five homes and a portion of a nearby highway.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
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POSTED Saturday, June 14 --- 7:15pm
Nearly 250 people from Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton area stepped up to clean up the remains of the lake after it overflowed this past Monday.
"You saw ooze, old shoes, I mean lots of branches, weedy moss," says one volunteer.
"You saw stumps, you saw fish, you saw huge depressions and water and limited water. It was surreal to see it. It was like something that would only happen in a movie."
Tim Fromm and his family of 5 lost their home when it washed away with the lake. Now they're part of the Lake Delton cleanup efforts as volunteers work to restore what's left of the area.
"It's a 267-acre lake," says cleanup organizer, Tom Holtz "It's not very often that you get a lake emptied so until it's empty you don't realize what's there. We have approximately 4 20 yard dumpsters full all the way up."
Volunteers began working as early as 8:30 Saturday morning and needed several bulldozers to complete the job. Local businesses provided lunch for the community showing support in this time of need.
"All of us were thrown for a loop out here when the lake drained away and we all felt very helpless," says another volunteer. "This is a way for all of us to be able to do something, anything to try and help out."
And while Tim and his family are still recovering from the tragic loss of their home this week, they are thankful for the help from the community.
"I saw a lot of people out here today that didn't even live on the lake. So it just shows the community involvement," says Fromm.
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UPDATED Wednesday, June 11 --- 2:15pm
LAKE DELTON, Wis. (AP) -- The property owners who had their homes destroyed as Lake Delton emptied this week aren't covered by national flood insurance because the village suspended its participation in the insurance program years ago.
The homes would have been covered by the National Flood Insurance Program. But, the village of Lake Delton pulled the plug on its floodplain designation by the Federal Emergency Management Agency seven years ago.
The DNR's Bureau of Water Management director Russell Rasmussen says the village had participated in the program since 1975. But, it didn't adopt a new floodplain map, so the village lost its eligibility to participate.
Lake Delton Police Chief Thomas Dorner and the city engineer say the village had a problem with the FEMA's expansion of Lake Delton's flood zone, which can make building much more costly.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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UPDATED Tuesday, June 10 -- 5:30pm
REPORTER: Brock Bergey
Tuesday morning, the people deciding the future of Lake Delton met behind closed doors.
"We'll expedite anything where we possibly can," says Andy Morton with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
He says engineers are studying the drained lake to put a rebuilding plan in action.
"Exactly how that happens and the time frame, it's too early to assess that right now," adds Morton.
Village Board member Tom Diehl says it's important the job be done right.
"We want to be prudent as a village because we don't want this to ever happen again," he says.
The fast flowing water washed away one of Lake Delton's barriers -- County Highway A.
"The first thing we need to do is put a diversion out there," Morton says.
"We recognize we have a 400-foot breach at the end of a lake, you just don't throw a bunch of rocks in there to correct it," says Diehl, who also understands that likely means no Lake Delton this summer season.
"One summer isn't the end of the world," he says. "There's no doubt about it, a lot of people are going to get hurt, but we will rebound."
Diehl says no numbers have been thrown around, cost-wise. But, he says the village cannot do it alone.
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UPDATED Tuesday, June 10 --- 3:10pm
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Gov. Jim Doyle says he doesn't know when Lake Delton will be refilled.
Engineers are studying the lake near the Wisconsin Dells a day after it overflowed and nearly emptied into the Wisconsin River. The lake is in the heart of a vacation area that attracts 3 million visitors a year.
Doyle says it will only take about two weeks for water from the river to refill the 267-acre lake. But the question is how long it will take to divert and correct the river's current path back into the lake.
The governor says he wants to get it done quickly because a lot of people's livelihoods depend on the lake.
He also says about 100 people in 30 southern Wisconsin counties remain in shelters following heavy rain and flooding over the weekend.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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UPDATE: Monday, June 9, 2008 --- 6:20 p.m.
LAKE DELTON, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsin's popular Lake Delton is gone, after floodwaters washed out an earthen dam and sent the water rushing into the Wisconsin River.
The torrent after days of rainstorms washed three homes away and tore two others apart.
Governor Jim Doyle says the lake is crucial to the $1 billion annual tourism industry in nearby Wisconsin Dells.
He says the state will go to work immediately to figure out how to replenish the lake. He expects a decision to be made in the next day or so.
Bill Pettit has owned the Delton Oaks Resort on the lake for 12 years. He watched the dam wash away and saw the flood water push a two-story lakefront house into the lake. It quickly disappeared under the rushing water.
Shortly after, he saw the foundation of two other lakefront houses wash away, leaving the houses in rubble.
He says his 30-unit resort is out of business. It's been in operation since 1948.
He's been calling summer vacationers to alert them that the lake is gone and that boating and fishing won't be possible.
AP
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UPDATE: Monday, June 9, 2008 --- 5:55 p.m.
LAKE DELTON, Wis. (AP) -- Gov. Jim Doyle says state workers hope to restore the water into Lake Delton as soon as possible.
Doyle says the lake is crucial to the $1 billion annual tourism industry in Wisconsin Dells. Doyle says that the Department of Natural Resources is trying to figure out how to replenish the lake and he expects a decision in the next day or so.
The governor spoke on a hill overlooking where floodwaters forced an earthen dam to collapse, washing away three homes and snapping two others into pieces.
AP
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UPDATE: Monday, June 9, 2008 --- 3:45 p.m.
LAKE DELTON, Wis. (AP) -- Torrential rain and widespread flooding caused a 245-acre lake in the popular resort town of Lake Delton to flow over its banks today, emptying the lake and washing away four homes.
After a weekend of strong storms and record rainfall, authorities ordered evacuations and began sandbagging as rivers and lakes rose, jeopardizing dams in southern Wisconsin.
Lake Delton village trustee Thomas Diehl says the lake is dry.
He says about 100 people started sandbagging at 2 a.m. but it didn't work.
The state's Department of Natural Resources says the lake drained into the Wisconsin River after a highway embankment failed and water poured out of the lake, essentially emptying it.
State authorities were inspecting dams and waterways throughout the state today and residents were put on alert.
The DNR says Dell Creek Dam on Lake Delton did not fail.
AP
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Monday, June 9, 2008 --- 12:35 p.m.
UNDATED (AP) -- Evacuations and sandbagging continue this afternoon as rivers and lakes continue to rise.
At least three homes were washed away as Lake Delton overflowed in Sauk County and washed across the highway into the Wisconsin River.
County emergency management director Jeff Jelinek says the dam on Lake Delton is still holding, but the water has swelled and is flowing into the river. People have been told to evacuate the area.
Dams in Fall River and Wyocena in south central Wisconsin were breached with water flowing over the top.
The Department of Natural Resources is flying over dams in Vernon County and sending engineers to other counties to assess dams there, including Columbia, Dodge, Sauk and Jefferson.
In Columbus, more than 100 people were evacuated today from an apartment complex, condo building and in several homes with airboats. Water from the Fall River dam was released to keep it from failing. But, Mayor Nancy Osterhaus says it's only made flooding elsewhere worse.
AP
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