FOND DU LAC, Wis — Rapid snow melt and heavy rainfall forced hundreds across northeast Wisconsin to evacuate their homes as flood waters left some uninhabitable.
For many, it was the worst week of the year when flood waters forced residents in Fond Du Lac and Green Bay to leave valuables behind as water started to creep in homes.
"We have had some flooding around the wall ... this came over the wall," says Mike Feiereisen of Fond Du Lac.
On March 14, ice jams in Fond Du Lac caused water to seep over canals and on to city streets. The flooding so bad over 300 residents were forced to evacuate many of them rescued by boat.
"Firefighters or whoever came with their rafts and took us down the street where a good samaritan took us then to my father in laws house where we stayed for a couple of days,” he says.
That same night in Green Bay a similar story as the East River overflowed on to city streets forcing over 60 people to evacuate and leaving homes to be condemned for weeks.
“I got up and it was ankle high already.” Laos Lor describes the flooding his Green Bay home suffered this season. “This one came in a rush. I mean it was just coming in on all 4 sides.”
A long recovery ahead for many residents. Utilities like the water heaters furnaces and carpets all having to be replaced but the hardest part for residents is moving on from irreplaceable keepsakes that were damaged by the water.
“Everything was destroyed in there,” Lor says. We had three extra beds that were for people to come in there and come and visit and stuff like that. Extra clothes, pictures, souvenirs all of that stuff is. It’s all lost.”
