OCONTO, WI (WTAQ) – Public works crews are dealing with the aftermath of rain and heavy winds that hit much of Northeast Wisconsin earlier this week.
Oconto has seen their fair share of flooding issues lately, and Public Works Superintendent Jeremy Wusterbarth says this week isn’t much different.
“This is typical to what we see…After going through last year, it’s kind of going through the same thing where you just get used to it. Not that you like it, but you get used to it,” Wusterbarth tells WTAQ News, “The largest amount of flooding that we typically get when we get those Northeast winds is out in our harbor area…Bayshore Road, typically you’ll see anywhere from four inches to a foot and a half of flooding in that area.”
The storms from Sunday and Monday were relatively tame when it came to how much water covered the streets, but the high winds created more debris than usual. Wusterbarth was on site when we spoke with him Tuesday morning.
“The road is covering probably anywhere from 3-5 inches in spots with a lot of heavy debris,” Wusterbarth says, “Just starting debris clean-up right now and hopefully we get some wind change here and things die down and we can get these roads opened back up.”
Despite a solid workload for those clearing debris, most homeowners near the shoreline didn’t see much property damage this time around.
“Some of these homes are seeing water in their crawlspaces that will need to get pumped out. There’s nothing that I think has reached inside any homes,” Wusterbarth says, “There’s a couple garages that have 4-5 inches of water in them right now that’ll have to get pumped out or wait for that water to recede.”
The city has made efforts to prevent flooding as much as possible, especially in areas that are flood-prone. But there’s only so much that can be done.
“There’s really not a lot you can do as far as prevention goes…We’ve probably spend $10,000-$14,000 on building walls up around Bayshore Road to protect water from having more of an impact or bringing sand and debris up over the road,” Wusterbarth says, “When you get those Northeast winds, nothing can release from the river – so your marshes back up and we get a lot of flooding. Some of our secondary streets in the city that storm sewers just can’t handle it, so you see water start coming out of catch basins into the street and start to flood areas out.”
Wusterbarth hopes to have everything mostly cleaned up by the end of the week.
