Rain Impedes Road Openings Following Weekend’s Floods

Rain is impeding the progress of county highway workers in southwest Wisconsin trying to open roads damaged from heavy rains and flooding.

Grant and Crawford counties received the most damage to state roads including portions of Highways 60, 61, 35, and 171.

Dennis Pelock heads the Crawford County Highway Department. He says his crew made some progress yesterday when near-disaster hit: Mudslides, as high as 15 feet and 100 yards across, rolled right onto the road.

Pelock: “We were really concerned when that slide came down on Highway 61. Had the crew been working there we would have lost some men.”

Things are not much better in neighboring Grant County. Highway commissioner Dave Lambert says it’s been a matter of three steps forward, and two steps back. He says roads that open can quickly close again.

Lambert: “I think we got every road open at least one lane, and I come back in and they announced County C is closed. And I just drove County C from one end to another.”

Wisconsin Emergency Management says there has been rain-related road damage in Richland, Vernon, Washburn, and Ashland counties as well.

The National Weather Service in La Crosse says flash flood watches and flood warnings are in effect for much of southern Wisconsin tonight. It says one to four inches are possible in areas still recovering from the weekend storms.