The waters are receding, but the impact from this month’s floods continues to be felt in numerous ways, including some that affect business in Western Wisconsin and elsewhere.
First is the issue of dams. There are 88 in the state, and several were compromised or threatened by rising waters. Of course, the most dramatic was on Lake Delton. Once it was breached, the lake turned back into a stream, stranding several businesses that are dependent on it being a lake, not a stream.
Western Wisconsin also has a lot of dams because of its preponderance of streams and rivers rather than natural lakes. In fact, Vernon County has 22 of the state’s 88 dams.
Several of those have been endangered, necessitating costly repairs, detours and other disruptions of business and people’s lives.
The state fund for maintaining and fixing dams essentially is broke. So, how the work on these structures will be paid for is in question.
State officials have said they will find the funds somewhere. The feds also might be able to help, although money is not readily flowing from Washington to local governments these days. In part because of that, local and county governments don’t really have the funds either.
But, the dams must be repaired. So, all these levels of government will have to come up with their share. State business groups also should contribute something since many businesses are affected by waterways in the region and state.
Tourism, fishing, etc. often are impacted by access to waterways. Flooded waterways, or dangerous waterways because of compromised dams, do not lead to good business.
A second issue related to the floods is transportation — both via highways and rail. Several roads, including some major highways, have been closed and damaged by the floods.
That has led to increased transportation costs for tourists, commuters and carriers of goods who have had to take detours, sometimes adding hundreds of miles to routes. Of course, this comes during a time of record fuel costs, which only makes the matter worse.
Rail would be considered an alternatives in many similar situations. But, Amtrak had to suspend service to some of the flooded areas in Western Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. Freight trains also could not take their normal routes.
Any increased costs in transportation will just be passed on to the consumer who already is paying more for food and goods.
There doesn’t seem to be much government can do to help in these situations. Some tax credit ideas for companies facing higher costs because of taking longer routes have been discussed, but such measures would not bring that much relief. It looks like the consumers will just have to ready themselves to pay more.
Gays Mills in Crawford County faces a more acute issue — whether to move the community to higher ground, build a levee on the Kickapoo River or take other measures to protect against flooding.
The community has been flooded out twice in 10 months. Businesses have been devastated. Many rebuilt with their own funds after last August’s floods, but don’t have the resources to do so again.
There is precedent for moving to higher ground. Just downstream at Soldiers Grove, the business district was moved out of the flood plain 30 years ago. Solar energy was even put into the new business district.
But, State and federal funds for such a move were more readily available then. Gays Mills probably should have made the move then too, but didn’t. Now, the community faces austere budgets for such a move.
As written in last week’s column, Western Wisconsin folks have the mettle to rebuild. But, it will take more than just that to address these issues, and others left over from the floods. Cooperation between private and public sectors, ranging from regional to national levels, will be needed to find the resources to pay for what needs to be done.
