More than 10 million people across the Midwest remain under floodable alerts on Monday morning while the strong precipitation continues to rub parts of the Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, triggering sudden floods in Milwaukee which forced the Wisconsin State Fair to cancel its last day.
The Wisconsin is on the right track to beat its daily precipitation record after a rain gauge in the northwest of Milwaukee recorded 14.5 inches of rain on Sunday, according to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Eggins District. If he was confirmed by the National Weather Service, he would exceed the previous 11.92 inch record set in Mellen, a city in northern Wisconsin, in 1946.
The county of Milwaukee declared on Sunday the state of emergency while the Milwaukee river hung on to an 11.19 feet record, exceeding the previous summit of 10.48 feet fixed in July 2010.
“This is something that Milwaukee has not seen for perhaps a decade or more for a decade,” said Milwaukee mayor Chevy Johnson during a Sunday press conference, noting that her own family was assigned.
The beloved of Wisconsin State Fair in the region was forced to close early on Saturday, canceling a performance by the famous rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd. The organizers canceled its last day on Sunday after the rains flooded the fairground at West Allis, just outside Milwaukee.
USA Triathlon also canceled its national sprint championships and its national paratriathlon championships on Sunday in Milwaukee due to floods and damage on the route, the organization said. The floods also hit Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, where the tracks, traffic lanes and a lower tunnel were flooded, the meteorological service said.
A flood warning remains in force for Milwaukee up to at least 10 a.m. on Monday, while rivers continue to increase, according to the National Weather Service.
Much of southern Kansas, part of western Missouri, and part of northern Oklahoma are under a level 3 risk of rainy flood until Monday morning, according to the Weather Prediction Center. A level 2 of 4 risk of flooding remains in place for a large part of the Midwest, especially the south of Wisconsin, the west of Illinois, the east of Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, East Colorado and northern Oklahoma.
The violent weather is part of the same storm system which brought strong winds with gusts of more than 80 mi / h to the Nebraska on Saturday, where a person was killed and another was seriously injured by a large cotton wood which overthrew their vehicle.
Hundreds of detainees from the penitentiary of the state of Nebraska had to be moved after the storms damaged two dwellings, without reported injuries, according to the Associated Press.
On Sunday, the Milwaukee fire service carried out around 65 water resumes, heading around “hundreds of vehicles in the city blocking the intersections, which makes progress absolutely impossible,” said Milwaukee firefighters Aaron Lipski. A dozen firefire fire services helped the response to the high number of calls, said Lipski.
Brian Baxter, whose two teenage girls were alone at the house near the promenade of the Menomonee river, described feeling “helpless” while flood waters entered the family home when they were waiting to be rescued, he told CNN Affilié WDJT.
The girls, Brailey and Brecken, called their parents in the middle of the night while the water rose, sharing with them a video of the floods. They returned home but could not reach their daughters because the flood waters had covered the neighboring streets. The rescue teams finally recovered the girls and their family dog.
Strong rains will move east in the Ohio valley and the Great Lakes until Monday, with lighter showers that persist in Wisconsin and in the central plains. Even with total totals than Sunday, additional rains could still trigger floods. A large part of the Midwest will become drier and cooler in the middle of the week before another cycle of storms developed at the end of the week.
This story has been updated with additional information.
