Forget my basement - I was one of the lucky ones

Even as I wrote that post about the water in the basement I knew there were people a lot worse off. Heck, the front page of the Journal-Sentinel had a  picture of people canoeing down an intersection not more than a couple miles past my place of employment.

When I got to work my story was put to shame. One guy had three feet of water in his basement; many more had some degree of flooding and the mother of one of our employees had to pull out the wall-to-wall carpeting in her rec room. My friend Tre chimed in with news that a co-worker of his had 41 inches in his basement, while his own garage took in an inch. My daughter's had school cancelled when their cafeteria flooded badly enough to make the news. A customer told me her newly finished basement near Sherman Park had been destroyed, costing her all the electronics in her rec room, damaging her electricity and sending her to room in a hotel overnight.

I guess I can thank my lucky stars my situation wasn't much, much worse.

Wisconsin was hit hard, and the news out of Wisconsin Dells was staggering. Lake Delton is a popular attraction around that resort community.

Or rather it was. It jumped the banks and flooded a local river, draining the lake down to the bottom in a matter of minutes.

We're not talking a pond here, or a lagoon. This is a decent size, decent depth lake. It was large enough to support beach resorts and the locally famous amphibious Duck rides. Now it's gone, completely gone, and people are mourning their sole source ofrecreation and income.

Along the way, the Lake took out four large 'dream' vacation homes along the banks.

What a mess. And more rain to come this week . . . Hope everyone is well and stays dry.