Storms Cause Flooding, Evacuations In Arcadia

Several hundred people were evacuated from their homes in Arcadia due to flooding early Thursday morning.

Turton Creek flooded several blocks of homes along the town’s main street, prompting local officials to evacuate residents around 2 a.m.

Steve Horton lives on Oak St. right next to the creek. He said he first noticed the water rising around 10 p.m. as heavy rains came through the area. By 3 a.m., Horton said he’d evacuated his home and was watching the road in front of his house be washed away.

“It took awhile for that road to disappear but it was kind of scary,” Horton said.

Horton said the damage was much worse than the last flash flood that impacted the town in 2010.

“We’ve had a lot of water. We had 20 inches of rain in June and there’s no place for it to go,” Horton said. “We got anywhere between 9 and 11 inches last night from 7 p.m. and 4 a.m.”

Much of the water had receded by late morning and Arcadia Mayor Rob Riechwein said most residents were able to return to their homes.

“We have a couple of areas that are still underwater where people are not able to return,” Riechwein said. “But hopefully in the coming hours, water will be low enough for everybody to get back into their home and assess the damage and then it’s the clean up process.”

Volunteer firefighters were going house-to-house along Main St. for much of the day, pumping out residents’ basements that were still full of water.

And some residents said they’re worried about the possibility of more rain this weekend.

“If we got another three inches of rain, I think we’d be back in the same predicament we were this morning,” Horton said.

The National Weather Service in La Crosse has issued a flash flood watch for much of western Wisconsin through Saturday, forecasting heavy rain and more flooding throughout the region.

Widespread flooding in western Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota closed roads and triggered mudslides.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Winona and Houston counties in Minnesota and parts of Crawford, Vernon, Richland and Juneau counties in Wisconsin.

Numerous roads in Vernon and Buffalo counties were also affected by flooding.

In Minnesota, officials say mudslides or flooding have made parts of some highways impassable, including I-90 and Highways 16, 26 and 61 in Winona and Houston counties.

Editor’s note: This story was updated with additional reporting from WPR at 4:35 p.m., Thursday, July 20, 2017.