Flooding in Waukesha
In early august 2025 the Fox River had record levels of flooding. The Fox river runs through downtown Waukesha which was hit hard by the flooding. Several streets had to be closed including county highways. At one point the city parked dump trucks filled with gravel on top of the Barstow street bridge to prevent shifting or lifting.
On August 10th Governor Tony Evers declared a state of emergency. By one estimate the flooding caused around 63 million dollars worth of damage to private property and around 4 million dollars to public property. The flooding caused a lot of damage to basements and structures near the river. Some roads were heavily damaged by the flooding and are still out of operation
The flooding was not limited to the Waukesha area but also to nearby Washington and Milwaukee counties. The state fair being held in West Allis (Next to Milwaukee) had to be shut down due to standing water. When people were leaving they found that their cars were in high standing water.
The flooding was caused by a large amount of rainfall in a short amount of time. This caused the banks of the rivers to expand. Many rivers reached the highest point they have ever been. The 24 hour Wisconsin rainfall record that stood since 1946 was broken by over 2.5 inches in Milwaukee County
Personal Anecdotes
I was not effected that much by the flooding. My house was far enough away from the river and on a hill. However there were many road closures that made it hard to get around, but that was pretty much it. On the day of peak flooding I went with some friends to a thrift store to buy inflatables which we took out to try and raft on the high water.
In my neighborhood after the flooding many people had to rent dumpsters because their basements had been completely flooded and everything in them was destroyed. So when driving around you would see a lot of furniture out by the curb which is evidence of the damage caused.
Works cited
Latham, Amanda., (2025) Historical Flooding in Southeast Wisconsin: Wisconsin State Climatology Office, https://climatology.nelson.wisc.edu/historic-flooding-in-southeast-wisconsin-august-2025/
Ryan, Rachel., (2025) Floods Cause 63.7 Million in Damage to Private Property in Waukesha: Spectrum news one, https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee/news/2025/08/18/waukesha-- private-property--damage--costs--floods
Calvi, Jason., (2025) Waukesha Country State of Emergency Declared Over Flooding: Fox6 news, https://www.fox6now.com/news/waukesha-county-state-emergency-declared-over-flooding
Comments
Post a Comment