Water levels are slowly receding across southeastern Wisconsin after Tuesday night's storm, but flooding still remains a problem in Saukville, one of the hardest hit areas.
Even when it's buried in water, Sue Katrosits loves her home along the Milwaukee River in Saukville.
"You've got waterfalls over here. You've got on a normal day, I mean it's a beautiful place to live,” Katrosits said.
However, when it pours like it did Tuesday night, she prepared for her backyard to get wiped away by floodwaters.
"It's just pounding rain,” Katrosits said. "I looked out the window and I'm like oh geez."
Katrosits’ patio furniture and garden were sitting under water after the storm.
"There's a glass table down there that I hope is still there,” Katrosits said.
Living in Saukville for more than 30 years, it's something she's experienced about four other times, including last spring when ice jammed on the river.
She said that’s typically when the village floods, but on Wednesday parks with playgrounds, tennis courts and baseball fields looked more like lakes.
"It's just a sight. People got to come see this,” Saukville resident, Jeff Bandow said.
Bandow called the storm a “gullywasher.” Peninsula Park and Grady Park were buried in water as far as the eye could see, and major roads were closed to traffic.
“It’s pretty crazy," Saukville resident, Sarah Gibb said. "When it starts flooding it kind of becomes a tourist attraction. You get a lot of cars pulling in to check out the river and all the flooding."
What’s next can be frustrating.
"You see all the boards and swamp grass that you're going to have to rake up and logs to clean up,” Katrosits said.
Katrosits and her neighbors know that will take some time and it comes with the territory.
“It’s an act of god. There’s nothing you can do about it you know, so you just got to roll with the punches,” Bandrow said.
“You live on the river, you expect some flooding,” Katrosits said.
According to the National Weather Service, the Milwaukee River in Saukville rose as high as two feet above the flood stage after Tuesday’s storm.
