City gets 3 more inches

By the Daily Times staff
Friday, June 13, 2008 1:09 PM CDT

When it rains it pours.

Storms that swept through the Watertown area over the past 24 hours dumped 3 inches of rain on the city, which has added to the flooding problems residents have experienced over the past week.

According to Water Systems Manager Paul Lange, the 3 inches of rainfall occurred between 3 p.m. Thursday and 2 a.m. today. He added the city has seen almost 11 inches of rain since June 6.

As of this morning the River Bend RV Resort was submerged in almost 5 feet of water in some places and several businesses and residents in the city are coping the best they can with flooded buildings.

Citizens who are in need of sandbags should call the Watertown Street Department at 262-4080.

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The heavy rainfall has also caused the Rock River in Watertown to reach record levels.

Assistant city Engineer Jason Schall said the level of the Rock River at the United States Geological Survey gauge south of the lower dam was at 7.68 feet at 10 o'clock this morning, which is the highest total ever recorded.

The river was at 5.6 feet on Wednesday morning.

The city's wastewater treatment plant treated about 28 million gallons of water between 7 a.m. Thursday and 7 a.m. today, which is almost 10 times the average of 3.5 million per day.

Watertown Mayor Ron Krueger is asking residents to reduce their water usage as much as possible, which includes washing vehicles, flushing toilets unnecessarily and doing laundry.

About 900 We Energies customers in Watertown were without power Thursday as a thunderstorm rolled through the area about 7 p.m.

The power outage lasted about two hours, according to Brian Manthey, spokesman for We Energies. The Watertown outage was caused by two spans of wire knocked down on Airport Road.

Along with the power outage in the city, several surrounding customers in Johnson Creek, Waterloo and Jefferson reported loss of electricity throughout the late afternoon and evening hours.

The Watertown Fire Department responded to several calls Thursday for downed power wires. Those calls were made from the 100 block of Stimpson Street, the intersection of South Concord and Oconomowoc avenues, the 300 block of Bonner Street, the 1000 block of South Third Street and the intersection of Airport and Turf roads.

Firefighters also responded Thursday at 6:30 p.m. to the N8800 block of County Highway E for a reported lightening strike and today at 5:23 a.m. to the 200 block of South Concord Avenue to help with flood control. No other information on these calls was available from the fire department as of press time today.

Sgt. Curtis Kleppin of the Watertown Police Department said the heavy flooding in the city has caused the closure of several roadways, including sections of North Water Street, Spaulding Street, West Main Street and Hoffmann Drive.

Police are asking residents to avoid driving on any streets that are closed and barricaded.