Crews using small boats to rescue stranded city residents

By Jeff Bollier, Aldrich M. Tan and Jennifer K. Woldt • of The Northwestern

June 13, 2008

Emergency crews used small boats to rescue stranded motorists and residents Thursday evening and overnight Friday as Oshkosh was deluged with more than 6 inches of rain from a line of severe storms.

Authorities set up temporary shelters at the Oshkosh Convention Center, Father Carr’s Place and local hotels to assist residents forced from their homes throughout the city. As of midnight, about 50 people were displaced by the storm, although that number is expected to climb through the early morning Friday

Residents are being asked to limit their use of water to assist the city’s wastewater treatment plant which is operating at capacity.

With nearly three-fourths of the city’s streets flooded at the height of the storm, Acting City Manager John Fitzpatrick declared a state of emergency at 7 p.m. Thursday. At a late night press conference, Fitzpatrick asked residents to avoid any unnecessary travel today.

"If you don't have to leave your home, please stay home because the emergency personnel will be working," he said at a press conference attended by city and county officials.

Fitzpatrick said no area in the city escaped damage.

“Those (rescues) are sporadic and scattered through out the city,” he said.

As of 10:30 p.m., more than 6 inches of rain had fallen on Oshkosh, bringing the monthly total to just more than 11 inches, according to Northwestern observations. The ground was already saturated from the 4.1 inches of rain that fell over the weekend, which added to the city’s flooding woes.

A fire damaged two apparently vacant homes on Jefferson Street. Officials said the blaze started at 841 Jefferson about 11:23 p.m. and spread to the neighboring property to the north. Electrical sparks could be seen between the homes. The fire was under control by midnight, but rescue personnel said standing water and numerous calls for service had them stretched.

“The storm is making it difficult for our officers to get around,” said Sgt. Matt Kroening. “Everyone is tied up on other incidents as well.”

The area of U.S. Highway 41 southbound in Fond du Lac remains closed until further notice, Winnebago County Sheriff Michael Brooks said at the press conference. No major injuries have been reported in the count. There are no numbers yet of how many stranded vehicles are in the area.

Sunday's rain caused at least $800,000 in property damage, said Linda Kollmann, county emergency management director. Kollmann expects that number to increase sharply as a result of Thursday’s storm.

"Please use caution and good judement and we will get through this," County Executive Mark Harris said.

The south-side neighborhood near Ohio Street, which was heavily flooded over the weekend, was one of the first to report basement flooding, with as much as 5 feet of water reported in some basements.

Standing water made it impossible to drive on major roads like Jackson Street, Murdock Avenue, State Highway 21, South Park Avenue and North Main Street, which left some area residents stranded.

Oshkosh Area Boys and Girls Club Radford Center Director Lori Fields, who planned to stay on the east side because of the widespread flooding, said children and most staff made arrangements to get home as soon as the storm began to arrive.

“We made sure all the staff got out and waited to hear from them and now we’re going to head out,” Fields said. “We monitored the weather. We made sure everything stayed cool, low-key and under control.”

Although city officials warned residents to stay home unless there was an emergency, some drivers ventured out and tried their hands at navigating the flooded city streets.

Some were successful. Others, like Kyla Pliskie, 19, were not.

Pliskie was driving east on West South Park Avenue near the park when she came to barricades blocking the street. Pliskie thought she’d be able to make it through the flood when the vehicle in front of her did.

However, Pliskie’s car stalled at the intersection of West South Park Avenue and Delaware Street.

The streets weren’t the only thing flooded near South Park.

The lagoon overflowed its banks and water stretched as far as the streets.
Neighbors said they have never seen this amount of water in the park before.

“This is ridiculous,” said Mitch Bennett, who lives in the 1500 block of Delaware Street. “My wife and I have lived here for 25 years and we’ve never seen it this bad before.”

Others had a little fun in the deluge — several guys rafted through standing water on High Avenue while two more walked up Broad Street with a canoe over their heads. Others, like University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh students Kelly Ruplinger and Nikki Smaga did their best to steer smaller vehicles away from an impassable stretch of High Avenue by directing traffic up New York Avenue.

“We figure we’ve stopped about 10 accidents from happening,” Ruplinger said. “No one seems to know what slow down means.”

The forecast looks clear for the next three days with between 30-40 percent chance of thunderstorms.

Bob Hernke, WPS spokesman, said outages occurred all over the city. As of 8 p.m. Thursday, WPS officials had responded to 50 outages affecting 3,000 customers.

High winds and heavy rain caused many outages, along with a few direct lightening strikes to power lines and transformers, Hernke said.

Mike Dempsey, Waterfest director, remained optimistic that the weather would clear up by 5:30 p.m., and then decided to cancel the BoDeans concert at about 6 p.m. for safety reasons.

Kollmann said countywide, the majority of the flooding occurred in Oshkosh. Other towns reported isolated flooding and the county is closely watching water levels on the Fox River in Omro and Eureka, she said.

Jeff Bollier (920) 426-6688 or jbollier@thenorthwestern.com. Jennifer K. Woldt (920) 426-6676 or jwoldt@thenorthwestern.com. Aldrich M. Tan: (920) 426-6663 or atan@thenorthwestern.com.