Governor Visits Flooded Boscobel

Governor Scott Walker declared a state of emergency for seven counties that were clobbered by rain over the weekend.

The declaration means Ashland, Crawford, Grant, Iowa, Richland, St. Croix, and Vernon counties qualify for additional help from various state agencies including the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and the Department of Health Services. It also activates the Wisconsin National Guard to help with flood cleanup.

Walker took a helicopter ride over the affected areas, including Boscobel, the hardest hit community in southwest Wisconsin. Hundreds of homes were damaged when more than a foot of rain saturated the city over the weekend. Standing in front of the Boscobel Fire Department, Walker said cleanup will take a while.

Walker: “It’s not all going to be done in the next day or two. We’ve got volunteers in the fire service and others who stepped up and helped people immediately. We still see people helping out: We appreciate that. We’re in the long haul over the city, county, and the region.”

Judy Bender hopes the state can help her out. Her rental house is uninsured and a near loss.

Bender: “We came in Saturday after the first flood on Friday night. Tore up all the carpeting. Put anything up that we could. Sunday morning came and it flooded again, an inch or two of mud over ahead.”

Walker says workers will try to help get the homes livable again. The governor says Boscobel isn’t in a flood plain. He hopes the state can figure out why the city sustained so much damage.