Wisconsin lake bursts bank and disappears
June 11, 2008
E.A. Torriero - Chicago TribuneIssue date: 6/5/08 Section: Real News
LAKE DELTON, Wis. _ For 55 years, acrobatic jet skiers forming human pyramids and waving American flags thrilled crowds at the Tommy Bartlett Show on these scenic shores.
But when the shows resume Thursday, the skiers will be no more and gone too will be the backdrop of the tranquil lake.
After the lake was virtually drained this week, the Bartlett audience will only watch comics and jugglers on unicycles on a stage fronting a muddy moonscape.
The loss of Lake Delton for the summer _ the signature landscape for the tourism-heavy Wisconsin Dells _ figures to deal an economic blow to the season just as it was getting started. Along the lake, boat renters, hotel owners, tour operators and bait shop owners are bracing for losses.
The severe damage in central Wisconsin is only part of a broad and still evolving Midwestern flood and storm system that has broken levees, closed or wiped out bridges and led to the evacuation of towns and cities in at least two states.
Disaster declarations have been issued in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Wisconsin as rivers have reached some of their highest levels in more than a decade. Nearly a quarter of a million people in Michigan are without power.
More rain threatens to add to the misery in Iowa. Residents evacuated several towns, including Waterloo, where raging flood waters knocked out a portion of a railroad bridge. The weather will determine if the worst is yet to come.
In the meantime, the National Weather Service predicted Mississippi River flooding in northeast Missouri rivaling or exceeding the levels of the 1993 flood. The threat of flooding will carry into the next two weeks as swollen smaller rivers dump water into the Mississippi.
Against a backdrop of stunning video images of an empty Lake Delton, tourism officials scrambled Tuesday to assure the public that the damage was not widespread and that the Dells "are open for business."
The Wisconsin Dells have grown into major regional tourist magnet, attracting an estimated 3 million visitors a year and generating $1 billion in tourist expenditures _ most from its indoor and outdoor waters parks not on the lake.
But when the shows resume Thursday, the skiers will be no more and gone too will be the backdrop of the tranquil lake.
After the lake was virtually drained this week, the Bartlett audience will only watch comics and jugglers on unicycles on a stage fronting a muddy moonscape.
The loss of Lake Delton for the summer _ the signature landscape for the tourism-heavy Wisconsin Dells _ figures to deal an economic blow to the season just as it was getting started. Along the lake, boat renters, hotel owners, tour operators and bait shop owners are bracing for losses.
The severe damage in central Wisconsin is only part of a broad and still evolving Midwestern flood and storm system that has broken levees, closed or wiped out bridges and led to the evacuation of towns and cities in at least two states.
Disaster declarations have been issued in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Wisconsin as rivers have reached some of their highest levels in more than a decade. Nearly a quarter of a million people in Michigan are without power.
More rain threatens to add to the misery in Iowa. Residents evacuated several towns, including Waterloo, where raging flood waters knocked out a portion of a railroad bridge. The weather will determine if the worst is yet to come.
In the meantime, the National Weather Service predicted Mississippi River flooding in northeast Missouri rivaling or exceeding the levels of the 1993 flood. The threat of flooding will carry into the next two weeks as swollen smaller rivers dump water into the Mississippi.
Against a backdrop of stunning video images of an empty Lake Delton, tourism officials scrambled Tuesday to assure the public that the damage was not widespread and that the Dells "are open for business."
The Wisconsin Dells have grown into major regional tourist magnet, attracting an estimated 3 million visitors a year and generating $1 billion in tourist expenditures _ most from its indoor and outdoor waters parks not on the lake.
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