WONEWOC (WKOW) -- Surging flood waters create a giant crater in a public park in a Juneau County community.
Wonewoc Village Administrator Lee Dutcher estimates the size of the crater in Legion Park as 200 feet wide and 20 feet deep. Yellow caution tape separates any park goers from the precariously-soft soil at the edge of the crater's dramatic drop-off from the park grounds. Dutcher says snow fences will soon be placed at the crater's edge to provide further safety.The park section that caved in to the tremendous water surge was near a playing field and used by camping groups.
Dutcher says annual revenue for the community of 800 people is approximately $600-thousand and he estimates public and private flood damage at already $500-thousand.
"And I suppose by the time we fill up the gulley with a new culvert and sand, it'll be close to $1 million," Dutcher says.Prior to the arrival of the flood waters, the damaged section of the park included a small, flowing creek, which visitors could easily walk across.
Dutcher says filling the crater will have to wait for federal disaster aid decisions.
Several Wonewoc residents are likely to have their homes declared total losses as the result of flooding spillover of the Baraboo River.
Rebecca Pagel and her family rents a home from a relative by the river at County Highway FF. Flood waters not only filled her basement but also cascaded into the home's living area three feet deep.Pagel had to be evacuated by boat after initially refusing to leave to buy more time to try to save as many belongings as she could."We were able to get a big chunk of the sentimental things," Pagel says. "Some of the other ones (lost) are irreplaceable," she says.
For more on this story: http://www.wkow.com/story/39042566/2018/09/06/flooding-creates-giant-crater-in-wonewoc-park