ALLOUEZ, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – With the last 48 of rain, first comes the flooding, now comes the clean-up.
Ledgeview resident Kael Coleman is cleaning up his flooded basement after water broke a window and poured in, causing thousands of dollars of damage.
“Insurance has denied the claim so far so I am trying to put everything together.
He says the mess is quite the inconvenience, but it could have been worse.
“Nobody is hurt and nobody is evacuated right now.”
Not everybody can say that.
Steve Hanson of the American Red Cross says they are helping people evacuate.
“If they have concerns about staying in their home, make sure they are connecting with family and friends and find a place that they can move to until the water goes down.”
Hanson says it may also come down to the Red Cross providing shelters for people.
In the meantime, they are assisting those who are looking to clean up the mess left behind with clean up kits.
Each kit comes with things like mops, garbage bags, and bleach.
“That wetness that they are experiencing is a very bad thing and it does not take a lot of time before that mold begins to form.”
He says mold is unhealthy to live in.
The rain is causing another problem as well.
Underground sewage systems in Brown County have gotten a workout for the last 48 hours.
Heavy rain has caused the systems to get overwhelmed.
Tom Sigmund, Executive Director of NEW Water in Brown County says the sewage comes to streets from the homes and businesses and the process begins.
“Then the cities or village or towns take over their own pipes and send it into our very large pipes,” he said. “Below the surface, the water is coming in by gravity.”
Sigmund says normally they take in 40 million gallons of water a day, but in the last two days, they have taken in almost three times as much, slowing the whole process down.
“We treat it through or treatment process and then discharge it to the Fox River.
He says advisories may be issued to ask residents to limit the amount of water that is being pumped from the house.
