Towns deal with floodwaters

Man watches flood split open house


LAKE DELTON, Wisconsin (AP) -- Engineers were headed to Lake Delton on Tuesday to determine how to repair a lake embankment that gave way, releasing a powerful current that swept away three homes and tore two others apart.

The remains of a home sit near Lake Delton after floodwaters breached the bank and drained the lake.

The 267-acre lake emptied into the nearby Wisconsin River on Monday, washing out part of a highway and destroying the homes.

Don Kubenik, 68, burst into tears after seeing the 2,800-square-foot home he built in 2003 snapped into pieces. The businessman from the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis said he spent every weekend there.

"That house had everything you can imagine and now it's all gone," said Kubenik, who was in West Allis when the lake overflowed. "My boat's gone. The pier's gone. Everything is gone."

Lake Delton, a key part of the Wisconsin Dells tourism area, was nearly dry by Monday afternoon. The 20 resorts that line the lake already are reporting cancellations by people who had planned summer vacations in the area.
Watch house collapse into water »
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/06/10/severe.weather.ap/index.html

WRTV: Town braces as flood overtops levee
Imminent Levee Failure Could Flood New Communities
Army Corps: Daviess County Levee In Process Of Failure

POSTED: 12:02 pm EDT June 10, 2008
PLAINVILLE, Ind. -- A levee on the White River in southwestern Indiana has been overtopped and is in the process of failing, prompting concerns of major flash flooding in Daviess County, officials said Tuesday.

The Army Corps of Engineers said a complete levee failure near Plainville, about 110 miles southwest of Indianapolis, was imminent.

Water from the failure could cause dramatic rises upstream on Smothers Creek, which would threaten homes and cause extensive flooding on Indiana 57.

About 140 Marines and 200 Indiana National Guard troops joined local emergency agencies Monday and early Tuesday to sandbag another levee threatened by raging floodwaters along the White River in the community of Elnora, about 10 miles northeast of Plainville. As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, that levee was holding, but water was flowing over it in some spots, officials said.
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