By Gregg Hoffmann
For the second time in 10 months, businesses and residents in Western Wisconsin have been hit by devastating flooding.
Once the damage is totaled from this spring’s rains and floods, it’s expected to exceed last August’s total. Vernon County’s early estimates alone approached $5 million early on, and they were just getting started counting. Crawford County and others were hit just as hard.
But, you can place your bets now that the vast majority of businesses and residents in the area will eventually dry out, get to work on repairs, and rebound. These are gutsy, hard-working people, who don’t ask for much from their government and believe in self-sufficiency.
Don’t get me wrong. We’re not being Pollyannaish here. Some businesses will be shut down by the latest crisis.
Some farmers in the area had not really recovered from crop losses last August, had to delay getting into their fields earlier this spring because of wetness from snowmelt and now find their corn or beans, which were just poking their heads above ground, under water.
Many will dry out their fields and replant in time to harvest some type of crop before the end of the growing season. Some will just not have the time and resources and many will likely go broke.
Small businesses depending on local customers are especially feeling the impact. Even if you can open up and salvage some inventory, it’s hard to sell things in a town that has been evacuated because of the flooding. Some business owners in Gays Mills and other towns along the Kickapoo River are facing that difficulty.
Tourist businesses are hurt by the flooding. Even after things dry out, people remember the media images of the floods and often won’t consider coming to an area for a long time.
One restaurant owner in the area reported 65 cancellations in the weekend that the first rains hit. Many others suffered similar losses.
Again, some of these businesses will not be able to recover. That’s a tragic fact. But, many others will somehow find the resources, clean up and rebuild.
Parts of western Wisconsin felt a second whammy. The bridge across the Mississippi River that connects Winona, Minnesota, and Fountain City, Wisconsin, was closed a couple weeks ago, after an inspector’s hammer went right through some rusted metal.
Thousands of people use that bridge to go from Wisconsin to Winona for work and in reverse. Ashley Furniture in Arcadia put together a shuttle bus system for employees coming from Winona and re-routed many of their truck routes. With gas and diesel prices as high as they are, Ashley spent thousands more per week on transportation.
Boat companies in La Crosse and elsewhere responded to the crisis with an offer of ferry service. Within days of the closing of the bridge, hundreds of people per day were getting across the river on these low-cost ferries. The bridge has since re-opened for limited traffic, but the impact of the closing impact lingers and contributed to the overall woes.
But, people in western Wisconsin will rebound. Their very efforts, courage and willingness to suck it up and act deserve to be rewarded.
FEMA needs to help out again, as it did last August. The state of Wisconsin needs to come up with aid for businesses and others. Gov. Jim Doyle toured the flooded areas last week and promised to help.
One FEMA worker told this writer last year that many residents would tell him “others need it more” when he surveyed those with flood damages. That’s very admirable, but it also is the very self-sufficient attitude that deserves to be rewarded with help.
Your hearts can’t help but go out to people in Lake Delton, another area where tourism businesses will be devastated, and other areas suffering from the flooding. The storms this spring had a wider reach than those last August.
Those suffering in those other places can get inspiration though by looking west to the business people and residents of western Wisconsin.
