Weather in Wisconsin

You may have heard about the unsettled weather that has been moving through the Midwest. Wisconsin has been affected and especially any counties along the rivers in the southern part of the state. Madison reported about 6 inches of rain in the last three days, but our area has had nearly 10 inches.

Saturday was an unusual day for us as there were two tornado warnings in the Wisconsin Dells area. The first sirens went off about 1:15 pm shortly after Curt and I came on shift. We told people about the storm shelter and encouraged everyone to join us in the garage built in a hillside. About 20 adults and 10 children stuck it out in the cemented, secure location for about an hour. We watched the rain pour down. We watched a tent fill with water and blow in the strong wind. Several trees snapped off during this first storm, but nothing in the camp ground was seriously damaged, luckily. A campground just 5 miles away suffered severe damage to the grounds and to camping units. There are closed for a time.

The rain let up, the clouds moved on and clean up began by the staff. The electrical power had gone out to the camp ground and to all of the Wisconsin Dells about 2:00. We lost phone power within an hour and later lost water to the camp ground. (Water was taken from the swimming pool to flush the toilets.) Without power, we could not take reservations, open the cash register-you get the idea. We covered the coolers to keep the ice cream, the ice and milk products cold.

About 5:00 the clouds moved back in, the sirens sounded and once again, we gathered the campers and encouraged them to move into the shelter. This time several dogs joined the group. We listened to stories of the campers' experiences in town during the first warning. Again we watched the rain pour down and winds blow. There wasn't any other damage within our camp ground. All of our guests and their property was safe. Some of our families left the camp ground after this weather session. Either their tent was down and wet or they just were tired of the rain. It was easier to go home than to continue to deal with the unknown of Mother Nature.

Electrical power was restored some time after midnight. Rain continued through the night and into the morning on Sunday. There was a brief reprieve on Sunday afternoon, but by 5:00, the skies opened once again and we had more rain last night. As of this morning, it is dry and there is some sunshine. We are hearing of county roads being washed out to the south of us, about 5 miles. There is also concern of the dams breaking because of the amount of water. The camp ground is on high land, so we are safe. But the unsettled weather will continue through rest of the week. Our summer adventure continues...