SHIOCTON ‒ Jane Kriewaldt shook her head while using a leaf blower behind her home on the Wolf River.
She wasn’t clearing leaves from her driveway. Instead, like her neighbors, she was doing what she could to keep the river from inching closer to the home she and her husband, Randy, have lived in for 51 years.
The Kriewaldts live about a mile from Shiocton, a community of about 900 residents in Outagamie County. An evacuation order due to the extreme flooding for village residents went into effect at 3 p.m. April 15. The Kriewaldts live in the town of Bovina.
While the Kriewaldts were working at their home on Old 54 Road April 16, Steve Gassner and his daughter, Avah, stopped by up the road on their tractor to take photos and video of lake sturgeon splashing in what used to be the front yard of Wolf River Asphalt. This year’s flooding coincided with the annual spawning run of lake sturgeon from the Winnebago System.
“I have never seen anything like this,” Steve Gassner said. “It’s crazy. We’re heading over to a friend’s house to help him around his house. It’s great to see the community come together and help each other out. We’re doing what we can. I thought I’d lend my hand anyway I can down here.”
Gassner said he didn’t have any major flooding problems at his farm about eight miles north of Shiocton.
“We live up in that band where we had 5 or 6 inches of rain,” he said. “Our backyard did get flooded, but it drained to the river.”
Avah Gassner, 9, attends school in Shiocton, but said school was called off for the rest of the week.
The Wolf, which flows through Shiocton, caused considerable damage throughout the village, according to Steve Gassner.
“It’s bad,” he said. “That’ll probably be the next place we go, to help a business stay afloat.”
Jane Kriewaldt said she figured the flooding would be a major concern for her home.
“We had a lot of rain and a lot of snow, but that all kind of soaked in,” she said. “It started before last weekend.”
The Wolf has flooded in previous years, but the water level has never been this close to the home, she said.
“You can’t tell now, but I have a nice yard,” she said. “I spend a lot of time in my yard. There are flower beds all through there and the front yard’s really pretty. This is the worst. You expect it, but nothing like this. It’s just starting to flood in the basement and we have two pumps going. (The water level) is still climbing, but not as fast. Yesterday, it went up like 9 inches.”
The Kriewaldts don’t have flood insurance.
“We haven’t had that for years,” she said. “We put in so much fill. When we moved out here, it was level with the river.”
Shiocton isn’t the only local community with flooding problems. Others include New London, Clintonville, Marion, Fremont and Manawa.
“All of this is going to go down to New London and they’re the ones that are going to get pounded because they have the Embarrass River, too,” Kriewaldt said.
“I’m definitely scared,” she added. “I’ve been nervous for the last four days and can’t sleep at night. It’s not pleasant and it’s going to be a mess once it goes down.”
This article originally appeared on Wisconsin State Farmer: As Wolf River rises, Shiocton neighbors band together amid flooding
Reporting by Greg Seubert, Correspondent / Wisconsin State Farmer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
