Historic Floods Highlighting Infrastructural Issues in Madison, WI

[Dr. Arch]

As some may be aware, we've had one hell of a beat down in southern Wisconsin from insane precipitation and accumulation. One of the main roads in the City of Madison, East Washington, is likely to be closed at the start of next week due to flooding from the additional rain expected on Friday. I can't even imagine the commuting and traveling nightmare this will create.

"With the unprecedented amount of rain that fell this week in Dane County, lake levels are rising and will continue to do so. There is additional rain in the forecast for Friday. City staff are working on alternative traffic plans as the Isthmus travel options are limited.

There are concerns that East Washington Avenue may be flooded early next week. If so, Williamson will become the alternate route for motorists traveling into and out of the downtown and Isthmus area, and parking restrictions will be necessary. As changes develop, updated information will be available at cityofmadison.com/flooding."


Link: https://www.cityofmadison.com/news/city-of-madison-prepares-for-rising-lake-levels-and-isthmus-road-closures

[Koharu]

Oh, man. Willy Street won't be able to handle that traffic. This has been just awful. I've been focused on the west side; I didn't even think about East Wash, but I knew the lake levels would rise. Ugh.

And once again, I will hope in vain for an elevated train in Madison/the Madison area. An isthmus just doesn't work for a modern city dependent on automobile traffic with no alternatives. The busses are good for short distances, but with housing the way it is, there are people trying to get fairly long distances and the busses aren't effective there, as they get caught up in the same traffic.

This does make me glad that I don't live in the Fair Oaks/Milwaukee St neighborhood anymore... Wouldn't be able to get places if East Wash floods like that.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The upper midwest has some of the widest variations in weather in the world... from season to season and from year to year.

I've seen picture and picture from the 1930s that show people swimming in the oppressive heat on vast beaches that are actually lakebed.

But by the 1990s the infrastructure the CCC and WPA built around the lake my hometown sits on was crumbling into the lake as they had built it in an era of lower lake levels.  Fields that my grandpa walked to school through in the late 1930s were bogs when I was a kid and by high school the water got deep enough that it became a very large pond or small lake.

Devil's Lake in North Dakota is the best example.  It went from a level of 35 to 40 feet deep before 1890 down to nearly disappearing at 10 feet by 1940.  It rose to fairly static levels through the 40s-60s and rose some in the 70s/80s but the stable levels lulled people into thinking it was permanent and houses and resorts were built around the lake.  Then 1993 happened and the lake rose 18 feet in one year and then kept rising to nearly 55 feet deep.. nearly the deepest level of the past 2000 years.

They keep building up the roads and abandoning others and raising and widening the dams and dikes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmyEkbrVDJY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3HCbdExcCc

It's really fascinating.  You just can't build infrastructure to handle it all in this region of the country.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I guess it isn't just the Mid-Atlantic then. We have had a lot of heavy rainfall and severe thunderstorms too, nearly every day of the past two months.

[KingSweden]

I guess it isn't just the Mid-Atlantic then. We have had a lot of heavy rainfall and severe thunderstorms too, nearly every day of the past two months.

If it makes you feel bette the PNW wildfires have been so bad we’ve barely been outside for the last week other than to quickly walk our dog