The Wisconsin Fiero Fanatics hold our infamous Dells Run every year in early June and we just finished up the 2008 event a week and a half ago. The Wisconsin Dells is a very popular tourist attraction in the upper midwest and the tourist season has just begun for the year. While in the Dells, there are many, many attractions to see, tour, and visit there. Well, this last week has been very wet for many of us here in the southern Wisconsin area and many locales received over a foot of rain. Well, one of the casulaties included Lake Delton, which is one of the waterways in the Dells area and many of the tourist attractions are located on this lake. Lake Delton rose, overflowed it's banks, and actually breached into the Wisconsin River. Lake Delton emptied in 2 hours. The lake is 246 acres ( I think that's right ) and it's now a creek. 4 houses were lost, a 400 foot section of County Highway A were washed away, and there is a gaping hole in the side of the lakeshore. It's just incredible.
This is the link to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel main page with quite a few different stories on the lake....
i was reading about this on my native fish forum (www.nanfa.org) its a real lose because that lake is a major tourism boom for the state, ive been hearing that there are already talks of how to fix the gapping hole in highway A
the actual dam did not rupture, but it was flowing over the spillway, the problem was the highway was the next low point and once the water started rushing over the highway alot of the sediment went with it until the highway was undermined and it went, also from what i hear that used to be the original path, or outflow of the creek to where it flowed into the river.
it will take a year or more to re-fill the lake i figure, and thats assuming that they get the highway and everything repaired in a timely manner.
i was reading about this on my native fish forum (www.nanfa.org) itsmatthew
I briefly lookedat that forum--looks mostly to be about fish in captivity. Is there ever much discssion about farm ponds-2 acres or bigger? I'm about ready to restock mine, and clear out some of the lily pads and other vegetation. Could use some advise.........
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09:27 PM
Synthesis Member
Posts: 12207 From: Jordan, MN Registered: Feb 2002
I thought I saw on the news last night that it was already refilling (they had shots of one of the guys who had caught the house falling in the lake... riding around the area in a boat)!?
...of course the rain currently on it's way isn't going to help matters (for that area, or S.Eastern MN) either!
In the second shot, I would have been underneath 14+ feet of water. The deepest parts of the lake are nearly 40 foot. The surface area of the lake was around 267 acres.
[This message has been edited by Synthesis (edited 06-16-2008).]
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11:57 PM
Jun 16th, 2008
fierohoho Member
Posts: 3494 From: Corner of No and Where Registered: Apr 2001
Correct me if I'm wrong but Lake Delton is after or down stream from the dam that we go over as we go up the hill into downtown to turn left to Chula?
If so I would think the water level by Chula is unchanged?
Did a berm of some sort fail and then the lake drained, if so I would think it would refill when the fix it.
Good pics Chris, I was hoping to see some like those.
Steve
Steve,
It was a very quiet moment. Walking out to the middle of the lake was a bit awe-inspiring.
The lake washed out a large swath of land.
The black line between the lake and the Wisconsin River is Highway A coming out of the Dells by Crabby's and Top Secret.
You can see where the Dam is, the red circle is where the lake overran the shore, and began to wash a channel down into the river.
It took less than 2 hours from the time the channel started to the time the lake was empty. There were several houses on that land, and a few that were on either side of the torrent that had their footings undermined. The footage of the house split in half is one of those.
Yes, the bottom is fairly clean. Not too many fish, but there are some.
I have a photo of a carp, at least 12 inches in length and probably close to two pounds laying there. Not even a big one, but a decent size. The smell is not as bad as you would expect. Once in a while, you catch a whiff of mud flat scent.
More pics/info later.
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08:40 AM
Synthesis Member
Posts: 12207 From: Jordan, MN Registered: Feb 2002
Chula is on the River, which bypasses the lake. Currently, as far as I am aware, Dell Creek is the only incoming water source for the lake, and is not enough to refill the lake within a year.
There are talks of diverting the Wisconsin River into the lake to restore it, but the section that washed out will need to be built like a dam in order to retain the water.
I guarantee that flood insurance will become available for the residents around the lake from now on.
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10:03 AM
Oreif Member
Posts: 16460 From: Schaumburg, IL Registered: Jan 2000
I walked out towards the middle. The lake is NOT refilling.
They had a story on the news today about this. They have some areas where the lake drained to and where it breached around the dam and highway that need to be repaired before they start re-filling it. The last few days they have had a "Clean the lake bottom" program going where folks pick up all the garbage that was on the bottom of the lake. The first day 250 people filled four 20-yard dumpsters!
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07:04 PM
Synthesis Member
Posts: 12207 From: Jordan, MN Registered: Feb 2002
They had a story on the news today about this. They have some areas where the lake drained to and where it breached around the dam and highway that need to be repaired before they start re-filling it. The last few days they have had a "Clean the lake bottom" program going where folks pick up all the garbage that was on the bottom of the lake. The first day 250 people filled four 20-yard dumpsters!
Yep. It is a great program! The shore will need a lot of repairs before they can begin the refills. The cleaning is going well, and they have been running across it with 4 wheelers.
