Flooding in Milwaukee

We've been hard hit with flooding here. Our own neighborhood has been safe, but sections of South Milwaukee are still under water, and the city is under a state of emergency (as is most of Milwaukee county). I drove home from work yesterday along the lakefront just before the storm hit, watching the clouds roll out over the lake. It looked impressive and dangerous, so of course, we had to go take some pictures.

 This view is North toward Milwaukee along the coast. We live a very short walking distance from Grant Park, so we took our cameras and ourselves down the Seven Bridges trail to the lakefront. We took these photos at about 5:30pm when the worst of the rain was just getting started.

 This view is looking east out over the lake. I love the color contrasts, how the dark sky makes the whitecaps really stand out, and the lake turns a sea glass-green color.  We watched the clouds roll out, and then the lake pushed them back; at one point clouds were moving in lines in opposite directions. Little did we know that the storm would bring tornadoes, up to 12in of rain, stop traffic on the interstate for almost 10hrs, close the airport (as of 2pm Friday - still closed), and produce car and house-eating sinkholes. Check the Journal-Sentinel for details.

And so it begins.....

My husband and I recently bought a house - very recently, like holiday gift week "good things also come in REALLY big boxes" recently. The process was relatively painless until the very end when someone in Idaho decided our small plot of home was in a floodplain...

True, there is a storm drain behind the property, one of those dry "creeks" that run between the backyards through the neighborhood and fill with water after a good rain. What our friend in Idaho could not know is that we're 23 feet up from the storm drain. From our backyard, we look down at the neighbors, not for any personal reasons since we don't even know them, but because their yard is almost at creek level. The whole north side of town would have to be under water for our yard to flood, and if that were to happen we'd have more pressing issues. Nevertheless, modern lending being what it is, no money would be granted until flood protection was dutifully provided. So we bought flood insurance to get the loan even though the house doesn't need it.

Good things also come to those who wait. Our initial closing date was delayed by four days waiting for FEMA to approve the flood designation so the insurance company would be allowed to take our money and sell us insurance. But in the end, we closed, and now we have The House in which to make our new home.