MILWAUKEE — People across Southeast Wisconsin are left cleaning up after heavy, prolonged rain Saturday night into Monday morning caused power outages and flooding.
TMJ4 caught up with a group of neighbors in Menomonee Falls that are dealing with water in their basements.
“All the rugs that we had are ruined,” said Joe Worden. “Basically, anything that was in the basement touching the ground has to come out. The workout equipment is metal, so that’s going to get rusty from sitting in water. But, we can’t move a lot of the big things until the water gets out, and we still have inches of water. It’s a mess.”
The Menomonee Falls Fire Department responded to the home across the street after some sort of explosion was heard in the basement. The home is owned by a TMJ4 employee.
WATCH: Katie Crowther explains flooding concerns in Milwaukee area
“We were trying to get the sump pump working, and suddenly we heard this loud boom in the corner near the furnace and water heater,” said Amie Vetscher. “It was unnerving. We smelled a little smoke and gas, so we figured we better get out.”
Luckily, emergency responders were able to make sure there was no danger.
“I think we’re going to have to throw everything in our basement away,” said Vetscher. “We have two utility pumps hooked up to garden hoses to get the water out of here, but we’re going to need something more industrial strength.”
That’s where water removal crews and restoration companies come in. We called some, and they all report barely being able to keep up with demand. They’ve been getting hundreds of calls for service since Sunday evening.
TMJ4 was able to meet up with a crew from Racine-based company, Restore More, Inc. They were working to dry out a basement in Franksville.
“It is all hands on deck,” said Nick Davis with Restore More. “We’ll probably work throughout the night. We have teams dispatched to homes all over. Racine, Franklin, Oak Creek, Brookfield, Pewaukee. It’s going to be a very busy few days.”
