The View From Wisconsin

I did a little visit to downtown again yesterday. Though the flooding is a bit more widespread because of the rain we got Saturday, it's pretty much concentrated within the area between the lake, the five-corners, Elm Street and Oakton Avenue. If we make it to the weekend without new precipitation, we might be able to get some of this excess water out and maybe think about reopening downtown.

I did an overlay of where I saw the flooding on a Google aerial map of the city; I was shocked at how much it just looked like Pewaukee Lake was trying to increase its banks. I'd love to look back through some of the reports from when they decided to dredge the river, but I don't have any idea where to look. I've heard stories that the area that is now built-up by the lake was once very swampy and uninhabitable.

One thing that floored me when I was taking pictures of downtown: there, swimming in the water as it was flowing down Main Street in front of the North Shore Bank, was a school - a school, mind you - of what appeared to be trout or carp. They were swimming in a circular motion, almost as if to say, "What the hell is this? This isn't the normal lake bed. Where's the mud with all the yummy bugs and such in it?"