Dylan Brogan
On Marston Avenue, near Tenney Park, Christopher Kilgour shovels sand into a bag held by Mark Zanoni. With more rain in the forecast, the neighborhood has been preparing all day for flooding.
Everyone is busy on Marston Avenue across from Tenney Park Lagoon. The record-setting rain that fell Monday night is quite literally approaching doorsteps there as Lake Mendota swells and the nearby Yahara river rises. The Friday sky is overcast and there’s an ominous vibe in the air. People have good reason to be worried.
With more rain forecast to begin Friday night, residents have been prepping for the possibility that their homes will flood. Flood zone maps that the city has released show water potentially going three blocks beyond the street.
Neighborhood residents have been stopping by the Tenney Beach parking lot since Tuesday to pick up sandbags as they prep for rising flood waters. One city worker, who declined to give his name, estimates thousands of sandbags have been distributed to isthmus residents. Inmates from the Dane County Jail were, at one point, filling a thousand bags an hour.
“Neighbors have been showing up since 5 in the morning,” says the worker. “They’ve been hot on it about preparing for the worst.”
On Friday, teens from Operation Fresh Start were filling sandbags and helping residents load them into their cars. The city had delivered a fresh truckload of sand at the end of Marston near East Johnson Street at the request of a resident.
“Carrying the sand is hard, tying the bags hurts your hand but you get used to it,” says Aaliyah McKay, a 17-year-old from Madison. “It’s worth it to help the community out. Everyone has been really nice. Nobody was really prepared for this.”
Christopher Kilgour, who lives down the block, takes a short break from shoveling sand. “I just came down to get some sandbags. I decided that I was taking so many, I might as well help,” says Kilgour, who estimates he’s placed 130 sandbags around his home and filled a few hundred. “I’ve lived on the street, off-and-on, most of my life. The water is definitely higher than I’ve seen it.”
Bob and Mary Ellen Spoerke have lived on Marston for 31 years. They have placed sandbags along their basement windows. Like many who reside on Madison’s isthmus, they’ve dealt with flooded basements before. But Bob has never seen the lagoon this high. Still, they’re taking the flooding in stride.
“Our neighbor was just walking down the street and saw a 5-pound smallmouth bass [swimming] under a bench” that had been overrun with water, Bob says. “We’re ready. All we can do is wait and see.”
Dylan Brogan
Residents near Tenney Park fill sandbags provided by the city.
What happens next depends on the severity of flooding on the isthmus, says UW assistant professor Daniel Wright, who researches civil and environmental engineering.
The worst-case scenario is another short-lived thunderstorm — like the one seen Monday — that drops inches of rain in a short amount of time. That could cause flash flooding throughout the isthmus because the city’s stormwater system is already at capacity. Dane County officials have lowered Lake Mendota an inch the past 24 hours through the Tenney Park Locks. That water is sent into a choked Yahara River and into Lake Monona, which is at the highest point it should statistically be in 100 years.
“We have a chain of lakes with fairly similar levels. Which means that when we have a lot of water moving through the system, it’s going to move through very slowly,” says Wright. “In the wake of a major storm like the one on Monday, there’s really not a lot you can do other than just wait and cross your fingers that you’re not going to get much more rain in the time that it takes to make it through the lakes and downstream.”
Kilgour makes this reporter fill a few sandbags before leaving Marston. He says the whole block is hoping that rain forecasted this weekend doesn’t materialize.
“What really can you do? Move your stuff to higher ground and help your neighbors,” says Kilgour. “Now, hold that sandbag upright.”
