Tracy Bailey
Kids from Shorewood Hills spent their last days of summer break helping neighbors clean up after flooding on Aug. 20.
Michele Hatchell was out to dinner on Aug. 20 when a friend called to say she’d better get home. On her way back to Shorewood Hills, she saw cars stalling out on University Avenue near Whole Foods as water swept over the road. Hatchell left her car in a parking lot and dashed to her home on Maple Terrace, where her cats Lenny, Rainbow, Kiki and Tiger were on the back porch.
“When I got to my block, there was a lake in front of my house. I waded in water up to my waist to get to my door,” says Hatchell, who got all the kitties to safety on the second floor of her house. “The whole scene was eerie. Everything was black because there was no power. The alarms on all the cars on the block were going off as they drowned in the water.”
Dane County Executive Joe Parisi says hundreds of millions of damage was caused in Black Earth, Mazomanie and parts of the west side of Madison due to flash flooding after the Aug. 20 storm.
“One thing people don’t seem to be talking about a lot is devastating damage seen in Shorewood Hills,” Parisi says.
Hatchell, a former art teacher at Shorewood Hills Elementary, watched water fill her basement and come within 6 inches of the first floor. Among the prized possessions she lost were the many art projects students had given her.
But she considers herself lucky.
“There are houses by me where the first floor caved in because there was so much water in such a short amount of time. I’ve heard these devastating stories and people are in shock about it,” says Hatchell. “The block behind me, where there are mostly rental properties, it’s like a ghost town. This whole little community is just gone.”
Rains over the weekend have extended the flood threat in parts of Madison until the end of this week. Lake Monona is still at a record high and Dane County officials continue to increase the flow rate out of the Tenney Park Lock to control the flood threat from Lake Mendota. High water has kept a section of East Johnson Avenue closed for almost two weeks. The city is advising residents near Monona Bay, the Yahara River and areas in danger of flash floods to keep sandbags in place until lake levels stabilize.
Shorewood Hills residents know the threat is real.
“It’s never really real until it happens. And it happened to us. When people drive by on University Avenue, I don’t think they realize how damaged this area is,” says Hatchell. “I was feeling pretty anxious [Monday] when it rained heavy. We’ve already seen this area hit hard.”
Marilyn Krichko lives in Shorewood Hills but her home was on high enough ground to escape flooding. She and two other Shorewood Hills residents — Tracy Bailey and Aleasha Anderson — leapt into action when they learned neighbors were in need.
“We started going door to door [the next morning] to make sure people were okay. We created our own ‘intake’ form to see if people were safe, whether their homes were habitable and what they needed,” says Krichko, who credits Bailey and Anderson with spearheading the effort. “After that we helped organize volunteers to help people clean up. We started a meal train. We’re a small community but we’ve really come together.”
The Blackhawk Country Club has made hundreds of lunches for residents and threw a brat cookout for both victims and volunteers. A small crew of village workers worked around the clock to haul away debris. Kids from the neighborhood have been helping move damaged possessions out of flooded basements. Starbucks has been providing free coffee. Trader Joe’s and Pick 'n Save have donated food. Neighbors and churches in Shorewood Hills have been helping people wash laundry and find shelter when needed.
It’s been a chance for Shorewood Hills residents to get to know each other, Krichko says. She considers Bailey and Anderson some of her closest friends now.
Krichko has also been horrified by the flooding stories she’s heard. “There was one couple, when the flood hit they were in their basement. The water rose so quickly that the wall in their basement collapsed and hit the gas pipe, which broke. The man had to hold his baby over his head when they escaped, the water was coming in so fast,” says Krichko. “One guy I talked to didn’t realize how bad the flooding was until he saw his car float past his house.”
Karl Frantz, the Shorewood Hills administrator, says the village installed a flood wall along low-lying areas after flooding in the 1990s. The storm surge breached that wall on Aug. 20 — the first time he recalls that happening. Many of the Shorewood Hills residents most affected by the flooding were renters.
“We are super indebted to the residents of this community who saw their neighbors in need and responded quickly,” says Frantz, who adds that like many municipalities, Shorewood Hills is only beginning to think about what comes next. “We jointly have to work on this problem with Madison, Dane County and other governments. I’m hoping with the immediate crisis coming to an end, we can start strategizing on how to prepare for this type of weather in the future.”
