Report: Severe flood damage happening more often in Wisconsin
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- As people across southeast Wisconsin spent a third day tossing out sewage-soaked belongings Wednesday, Aug. 13, a new report found severe flooding in this state is happening more frequently.
The study by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum tracked flood damage estimates going back to 1980. Lead author Tyler Byrnes said it's quite possible this past weekend's 1,000-year flood will end up being the most costly Wisconsin flood on record.
For that to happen, the damage would have to exceed the losses incurred during widespread flooding across southern Wisconsin in 2008, which caused $49 million worth of damage. Byrnes noted Milwaukee and Waukesha counties have some of the highest property values in the state.
"Given it was a thousand-year flood event in the places with the most property value in the state and the most flood insurance policies, it seems likely it'll be at least as big [as 2008]," Byrnes said.
Byrnes said they are two main reasons for why high-damage floods are happening more often in Wisconsin. The first, he said, is climate change, citing studies that have found increasing precipitation totals across the state.
This past weekend's flood could end up being the most costly in Wisconsin history, surpassing the 2008 floods in southern Wisconsin.
"As the climate warms, there's more likelihood of these big rain events," Byrnes said. "The warm air holds more water."
The other reason, Bynes said, is increasing land use. With more residential and commercial development popping up in and around populous communities like Milwaukee and Madison, there is less ground to absorb heavy rainfall.
"As we fill in undeveloped areas or as we develop areas on the outskirts in different parts of a watershed, that water has to go somewhere," he said. "It used to seep into the ground. Now, it goes downhill and goes downhill fast."
Of course, that creates a double-edged sword for government leaders, who are also managing challenges that stem from rising housing costs.
"We could really use more housing to address that," Byrnes said. "But as you build more, you can sometimes create more problems like this."
While policy makers wrestle with those challenges, individuals families are seeking moments of peace.
On Wednesday, Andy Radjenovich and Melanie Vasquez reopened the Jackson Grill supper club on Milwaukee's south side. One day earlier, they showed a CBS 58 crew the immense damage to their West Allis home.
"It's a sense of normalcy for us," Vasquez said Wednesday. "We've been so distracted and just not in the right mindset, but being in here, it was just relaxing."
While the couple waits to find out how much it'll cost to rebuild a large section of their house's foundation, which the flood washed out, Vasquez said it was comforting to once again be running out the supper club's signature ribeye and filet mignon steaks.
"Multiple times in our own lives [when it has been] tragic, it's usually we're around a table and we're having a good meal," she said. "And I feel that is what we need right now. That's what we're doing. We're gonna provide a good meal. We're just cooking it this time."