Family recalls rescue of teenage girls trapped in home during flash flood

A number of homes along Menomonee River Parkway were partially submerged overnight as a historic rainstorm-soaked southeast Wisconsin Saturday night and into Sunday.

Brian Baxter said he and his wife were on a weekend getaway in Elkhart Lake when their two teenage daughters called in the middle of the night.

"You know this is just something you don't think you really have to go through as a parent," Baxter said. "And you kind of feel a little helpless, but everybody's helping everybody out."

Baxter said his two daughters, Brailey and Brecken, shared videos of water rapidly filling their home near the parkway and W. Concordia Ave. The parents hit the road to come back home, but when the arrived in the subdivision around 5 a.m., they couldn't reach the home as high water covered both the parkway and connecting side streets.

"I was shocked by what I saw," Baxter said. "When Brailey called me this morning and she said, 'Dad, it's getting bad down here and water's getting high,' we did a FaceTime real quick, so I could see it, and I was shocked at what I saw."

Crews moved up and down the swollen river during a downpour Sunday morning. Eventually, they reached the Baxter girls.

"I was a little nervous," Brailey, entering her junior year of high school, said. "Where I first saw the water coming up toward the garage, I called my dad, and I was a little bit nervous since they weren't home, but I think I handled it pretty well and kind of just stayed on the high ground, but it was a little nerve-wracking."

A CBS 58 crew saw multiple families taken to safety, and they were able to bring their pets about as well. Brecken, who's about to start 8th grade, held the family dog, Bo, close to her body even after the girls were back on land.

"He was a little scared," she said. "But he got used to it and he's good now."

Overnight, the river rushed through Hart Park. It slammed debris into the bridge at 68th Street.

According to United States Geological Survey data, the Menomonee crested at 14.54 feet around 2:15 a.m. as it passed Hart Park. By mid-afternoon Sunday, the river had lowered to under 12 feet, but it still rushed like rapids. For most of Saturday, the river had sat at just 1.5 feet deep.

Britt Cudaback, communications director for Gov. Tony Evers, told CBS 58 in a text message Sunday morning the governor's office had been monitoring the situation in southeast Wisconsin overnight and was preparing for a briefing from Wisconsin Emergency Management.

Sunday afternoon, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley declared a state of emergency.

Along the Menomonee River, Baxter said he was worried the family's basement sustained heavy damage from the storm. Until the water recedes, he said all residents can do is find ways to assist their neighbors.

"Just keep being there for each other. Help each other out," Baxter said. "Whether it's maybe getting somebody a sandwich or maybe helping them move stuff out of their basement or helping them clean up. Just keep supporting each other, and that's what this community is all about."