Dam failure floods roads, homes near Hayward, Wisconsin

Chaffin Mitchell
·2 min read
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A flash flood that originated from a private dam failure closed roads and stranded approximately eight homeowners in the Town of Lenroot, Wisconsin, on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the Sawyer County Record.

County emergency management reported the dam failure around 6:20 p.m. CDT Wednesday along the Mosquito Brook Flowage. Flooding turned roads into rivers and impacted residential areas downstream towards the Mosquito Brook Springs and Mosquito Brook Road.

According to reports, floodwaters have damaged some roads in the area. Mosquito Brook Road and Porky's Road were closed to traffic. Homeowners on the dead-end road became stranded, and residents on Porky's Road may become land-locked, the Sawyer County Sheriff's Office said.

The Hayward area picked up 3 to 4 inches of rain the Tuesday night ahead of the Wednesday evening dam burst. However, meteorologists say some good news is in store for the area.

"A prolonged stretch of dry weather is expected Thursday through this weekend," AccuWeather Meteorologist Carl Erickson said.

A leading expert who has been studying and inspecting dams and levees for more than 50 years, Tom Wolff, warned Americans about aging dams in the U.S. following the Edenville Dam and Sanford Dam failures last week.

People photograph the floodwaters of the Tittabawassee River that encroached on downtown Midland, Mich., Wednesday, May 20, 2020. Floodwaters have overtaken dams and forced the evacuation of about 10,000 people from communities in central Michigan. Families living along the Tittabawassee River and connected lakes in Midland County were ordered to leave home Tuesday evening, the second time in less than 24 hours. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

According to Wolff, there are thousands of old and or poorly maintained dams in the U.S.

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"American Society of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO) estimates more than 2,170 at-risk dams in the high hazard category. High hazard refers to consequences that include potential loss of life. So there are similar situations all around the U.S., and it is just a matter of when and where there is a very rare, but very large storm event that leads to overtopping and destructive erosion, or other types of failure," Wolff said.

Wolff stressed that the public needs to be aware of where such conditions exist, and importantly in the absence of repair, mapping of what areas would flood in the event of a breach.

A flash flood warning remained in effect for the area through 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday night.

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