Flooding History

NEW Sometime in Spring of 2002
MMSD Parsons Stakeholders meeting. I videotaped the meeting and from the tape I generated a spreadsheet of the 100 year levels. I need to still find the tape again to mark the actual date.

Years 2002-2003
Bunch of Stuff including being bought out by the city.

June 12, 2001
Flood alert. It came while I was asleep. I had stayed up till 4:00 AM watching for flooding and went to sleep when the long range radar showed no more rain. A few thunderstorms formed while I was asleep and I awoke to this

April 26, 2001
Stake holders meeting with Parsons Engineering, and MMSD. The Mayor of West Allis will be there, she is also part of the MMSD commission. The Hale Creek pump station seems to be moving forward. MMSD wishes to pursue storage space in the New Berlin Golf Course before considering a buy out. Most of the residents are upset about the lack of progress on the north branch of the Root River. A question was asked towards the end of the meeting by my next door neighbor, "Who here feels that anything has been accomplished today? Please raise your hand.", no one rose their hand.

February 2001
Flood Event. The back yard filled with water. Luckily the huge snow banks by the river turned to ice and held the river back. The snow storm from a few days before dumped several inches of snow which equates to 2.5 foot tall snow banks. I dug a trench through the ice and snow to allow the back yard to drain. The back yard drained for 2 days before the temperature dropped and froze my trench and the back yard turned into an ice skating rink.

Jan 2001
The City of West Allis stated on the news that any attempt to buy out the homes in my neighborhood would be blocked. The city feels that if my neighborhood were bought out that the tax base would be seriously injured. The flooding issue also makes the evening with my next door neighbor telling of the story of the flooding in the area.

Year 2000
Four large flood events occurred in 2000. I didn't track them well but family members did and I will update this site in the next week to provide the most accurate data I can. I might do this still.

December, 19 2000
Stake holders meeting with Parsons

August 22, 2000
Stake holders meeting with Parsons

July 2, 2000
Flood Event! This is on the same magnitude as the June 21, 1997. We parked the cars on the other side of the river, which is much higher in elevation

Year 1999
More events happened in 1999 I just need to find the notebook with dates. I can't find it.

March 30, 1999
Stake holders meeting with Parsons

January 26, 2000
Stake holders meeting with Parsons

December 14, 1999
Stake holders meeting with Parsons

November 10, 1999
Stake holders meeting with Parsons

June 13, 1999
Flood Event! We parked the cars on the other side of the river, which is much higher in elevation. I video taped the cresting of the water. I was caught on tape in the infamous chair incident were I use two lawn chairs as stilts and walk out into the flood waters. Once I got out to the end of the driveway (14" deep with the water receding), I used the chairs to sit just above the rushing water.

June 21, 1997
Flood event! We had 6.8" of rain in eight hours causing the water to come up to the house. The sewage water was 20" deep in the garage next to the house. Continued...

Years 1993 - 1995
Between 1993 and 1995 Stran Engineering and MMSD Public Meetings. One of their plans was to dredge the river to allow for more water to flow. The Wisconsin DNR considers the Root River a navigable waterway that can't be touched.

August 1992
We moved to West Allis, a house on a parkway, but in a flood plain. We were told that it had never flooded before, and that a plan was in the works to remove the place from the flood plain.