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Disappearing Lake
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| RJT |
Disappears.
http://www.jsonline.com/watch/?watc...9/2008&id=41084
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Lake Delton near the Dells is essentially empty after the rain-swollen lake cut its own channel around a dam and emptied into the Wisconsin River, taking four homes with it.
The 254-acre lake is the home of the famed Tommy Bartlett Water Show. Tom Diehl, who operates the show and is a trustee for the Village of Lake Delton, said there was nothing but mud where the show is staged every day.
"We haven't had a show since Friday," Diehl said in a telephone interview. "We canceled Saturday and Sunday because of high water," he said. "Today, we're canceling because of no water."
Diehl described the Lake Delton situation as a once in 250-year event. "It dropped inch after inch after inch into the watershed," Diehl said. "Last night the lake went up 20 inches. We started sandbagging trying to protect the dam. But when the water got too high, four homes were lost. It took on a life of its own."
Diehl estimated there were 10-15 resorts on Lake Delton. Those resorts will lose significant business, Diehl said.
On the scene where the lake used to be, Journal Sentinel photographer Joe Koshollek said it looks as if a plug had been pulled from a bathtub filled with water. The lake, which is where the popular amphibious Ducks travel, has been pretty much all drained.
"The lake is gone," Koshollek said. "I heard one girl say 'I'm out of a job' because she rents jet skis."
Boats are lying on their sides in the muck of the lake and piers lead out into what just a few hours ago was a large lake filled with water.
The Oloha Beach Resort on Lake Delton no longer has a beach for guests.
Sauk County emergency management director Jeff Jelinek said 4 homes were swept away with the escaping waters. Jelinek said that the dam on Lake Delton did not break when the lake breached about 10 a.m. near County Highway A and Dam Road.
There have been no injuries reported but emergency officials remain on the scene this afternoon.
"Up from the dam the lake just got so much pressure and so much water it went over the banks to the river and started making its own channel," Jelinek said. "As the water started exiting the lake, it made its own channel. It went across Highway A and as it got wider it took three homes with it."
He said the lake also washed out about 300 feet of Highway A, which may have grown since the initial breach.
Jelinek advised motorists to avoid travel along Highway A.
He said a shelter has been activated at Lake Delton Grade School in Lake Delton.
Asked when the water show would return, Diehl said: "The village will have to bring in some engineers to figure out how to put in pilings to secure the breach. And then we have to wait for the lake to fill up," Diehl said.
Diehl said all 150 of his employees were on duty working to clean up the mess.
"Last night you could have looked at our stage and the water was four feet above our stage. We have nothing but mud in front of us now. No water. Just mud," Diehl said.
"What happened is the lake had risen really quickly and found an outlet and started draining catastrophically," said Andrea Novotny, public relations representative with the Bartlett show. "The shoreline is down so far we are without a venue to perform on without water being there. That's where we are right now."
Novotny also represents the Original Wisconsin Ducks and Dells Boat Tours. She said as of noon today, all tours were cancelled on the Lower Dells due to the water conditions. They are still operating on the Upper Dells, she said.
Port Vista, a restaurant along Highway A, borders Lake Delton, where bar manager Shannon Jackson said all that remains this afternoon are boats sitting atop mud.
"Everybody is coming to look at the emptiness," she said.
Jackson said when she arrived at work about 10:30 a.m. that the water in Lake Delton had gone down and docks were full of muck. She went to Home Depot for about 45 minutes and said, "When I got back, the lake was empty."
She wasn't able to get to work by her normal route this morning because County A was already buckling before it was taken out by the lake waters rushing over it.
"It's unbelievable. I'm just amazed," she said. "It took out a bunch of homes. They actually went floating."
Steve Zowin was on Lake Delton when it breached and began to rapidly drain this morning. Zowin, who owns Lake Delton Water Sports, was working quickly to capture boats that had floated away from piers and moorings from high water since the lake was four to six feet higher than normal because of the heavy rains.
All of a sudden a weak spot near the dam began to get water flowing through it and it quickly turned into a torrent, Zowin said.
"You could see everything just flowing that direction pretty quick. It went from 12 feet of water to almost no water," said Zowin. "I saw a lot of fish flopping around. I saw some people transporting them to deeper pools of water and some of them were taking them home to eat."
Zowin was in a boat towing a customer's pontoon boat when it started getting sucked toward the breach. He managed to tow it to safety though right now it's upside down because of the turbulent water.
Zowin, who opened his boat rental business in 1979, saw a couple of homes begin to fall apart and then get swept away.
"The first one that I witnessed was being undermined and then it just broke in half and half of it fell into the new channel and then it sailed away and disappeared," Zowin said in a phone interview.
"I also saw a mother mallard stay with her three ducklings which couldn't fly yet and they couldn't get away. But she stayed right with them. They got sucked into the hole but they made it through. That's probably the only nice thing I saw."
Zowin estimates Lake Delton was about 12 feet deep with the deepest spot right in front of the dam around 16 feet. About 80% of Zowin's business is boat and wave runner rentals along with a parasailing operation. He knows he is facing a financial hardship since his business, like Lake Delton, has dried up.
"Right now there is no lake. It's simply a channel flowing from here to the Wisconsin River. Now we basically have a creek flowing through here but once it settles down we will have a small crick,' said Zowin. "I would not anticipate Lake Delton being here this summer."
"It looks like a puddle," said Mt. Olympus theme park owner Nick Laskaris, who has a house on Lake Delton. "As bad as that may sound. And then there's just a stream going through the middle of it."
He said everyone was evacuated from area homes before the ground gave way.
But for businesses that depend on Lake Delton, the flooding is a terrible setback at the kickoff of the high tourism season.
"It's a disaster, complete disaster," Laskaris said. "Of course, we're going to try to rebuild as quickly as possible."
Laskaris estimated there are more than 1,000 hotel and condo units on Lake Delton.
He said, however, that the great majority of Dells attractions - which line Highway 12 and downtown Wisconsin Dells - are unaffected. |
This is about ~120 miles from Myra and I - I've seen the ski show they're talking about many, many times. :wtf: |
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| RJT |
And this is it two weeks ago:
And another one from today:
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| bas |
| quote: | Originally posted by RJT
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Kinda sad, but the fat guy makes me laugh :( |
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| RJT |
| quote: | Originally posted by bas
Kinda sad, but the fat guy makes me laugh :( |
It's ok, he's sad too. :( |
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| Ygrene |
| quote: | Originally posted by Article
Koshollek said. "I heard one girl say 'I'm out of a job' because she rents jet skis."
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Now she sells jet skis? |
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| RJT |
And holy crap...
| quote: | Originally posted by RJT
Sauk County emergency management director Jeff Jelinek said 4 homes were swept away with the escaping waters. Jelinek said that the dam on Lake Delton did not break when the lake breached about 10 a.m. near County Highway A and Dam Road. |
MR. JELLY-NECK!
Handlin' business in Wisco these days. :disbelief |
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| lücid |
| quote: | Originally posted by RJT
And holy crap...
MR. JELLY-NECK!
Handlin' business in Wisco these days. :disbelief |
:stongue: :stongue: |
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| RJT |
| Tragically hilarious. |
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| RJT |
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| Clovis |
BOATING
needs a lake
imo |
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| SuspicionVandit |
| looks kind of shallow |
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