Editor's note: This week's newsletter is from WisContext associate editor Will Cushman.
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Hello and TGIF!
Thank you to Hayley, who has graciously allowed me to take over the WisContext newsletter this week. I’m blowing up your inbox in her stead after recently returning from an eye-opening trip up to northwestern Wisconsin.
I can’t imagine a better time of year than midsummer to skedaddle north from the sauna that is (and certainly was last week) southern Wisconsin. Based out of Wisconsin Public Radio’s Superior bureau for the week, I gave myself a whirlwind tour of the region, criss-crossing the Lake Superior shoreline from the Twin Ports to Ashland and over to Saxon Harbor near the Michigan border, and detouring inland to some North Woods summer fun spots like Hayward and Spooner.
A thunderstorm moves off the shore and onto Lake Superior in Iron County. (Photo by Will Cushman)
Though the weather was generally great in northern Wisconsin last week, recent history has demonstrated that summer is increasingly becoming a season of extreme conditions in the region, particularly in the form of enormous rainstorms that have wreaked havoc on infrastructure like roads and private property over and over again in the last decade. And when I say enormous, I mean storms that dump so much rain in such a short amount of time that there was thought to be only a 1 in 100, 1 in 500 or, in some instances, a 1 in 1,000 chance that such a storm would hit in any single year. And yet, three storms of these magnitudes hit the region in the span of just 7 years.
A July 2016 photo of Highway 13 in Ashland County shows the road washed out by the Bad River, which flooded following that month's major rainstorm. (Photo courtesy of Ashland County)
It’s this repeated devastation to the region’s transportation infrastructure — epic washouts of state highways and hundreds of local roads, bridges battered and washed away by swollen rivers, utterly overwhelmed stormwater systems and battered harbors — that drew my interest during this trip. I wanted to better understand how the floods that have affected a swath of Wisconsin spanning seven northwestern counties in 2012, 2016 and 2018 are still being felt. I also wanted to hear how local officials are trying to adapt their approaches to infrastructure planning with an eye on future large storms.
This is an urgent question in the region and elsewhere in Wisconsin given the considerable costs of repairing and replacing infrastructure after massive floods, floods that in some cases are washing out the same roads and bridges in each successive event. In light of a climate that is already changing in Wisconsin and globally, and which is projected to produce heavy rainstorms with increasing frequency in Wisconsin’s future, a serious question emerges: How can communities build transportation networks to be as resilient as possible? Another question that naturally follows: What barriers are potentially piling onto this already massive challenge?
Matt Hudson is a professor at Northland College in Ashland. A water scientist, Hudson is working with local communities to tackle infrastructure issues in light of the region's increasingly frequent large rainstorms. (Photo by Will Cushman)
Over the course of the week, I spoke with emergency management coordinators, highway planners, land and water conservation officers, local elected officials, business owners and scientists who are all grappling with these questions. Now that I’m back in Madison, I’m following up with more stakeholders and experts.
And I’m turning to you too, dear readers. Do you live in the region, or did you experience any of the major storms and floods there in 2012, 2016 or 2018? Do you have questions about precipitation and flooding and their relationship with climate change, or perhaps about highway and bridge planning, funding or maintenance?
I welcome any questions, thoughts, ideas or observations you have in these realms, and I look forward to hearing from you. You can reach out to me at will.cushman@wiscontext.org.
Piers are piled and ready to install at Saxon Harbor in Iron County, which was destroyed in a July 2016 storm that dumped up to 10 inches of rain in less than 24 hours. (Photo by Will Cushman)
I’m excited to share the fruits of this labor in the coming weeks. Keep an eye out for some in-depth reporting on the topic published on our site in August.
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Cheers,
Will Cushman
Associate editor, WisContext
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As always, if you have questions about this email or an idea you’d like to see put into action, I want to hear from you. Send me a message at hayley.sperling@wiscontext.org, or find me @hksperl on Twitter.
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