MILWAUKEE — Nearly one year after historic flooding devastated parts of Milwaukee's North Side, Mike Gilbert can stand outside his former home near 61st Street and Lawn Avenue and hardly recognize it.
WATCH: One year after historic flooding, Lincoln Creek resident rebuilds his life
A year ago, Gilbert stood in the same neighborhood surrounded by destruction after floodwater rose to his waist outside his home.
"Unbelievable that it's been a year," Gilbert said.
The August 2025 storm dumped more than 14 inches of rain in parts of Milwaukee and was described as a 1,000-year rainfall event.
Gilbert remembers just how quickly his neighborhood disappeared beneath the water.
"When I walked from my house to my neighbor's house, the water was waist deep outside," Gilbert said. "And today that's hard for me to visualize. And I went through it."
His house was eventually deemed unlivable.
Today, it looks almost unrecognizable. The damaged basement wall has been replaced, the home has been renovated and it is now on the market.
But Gilbert is still next door — living with the neighbor who opened her home to him when he had nowhere else to go.
"I was very fortunate to have a, a great neighbor, you know, let me move in. I'm still there. I thank God every day," Gilbert said.
And somewhere during the past year, the two became more than neighbors. Asked whether they are now a couple, Gilbert smiled.
"I'd say so, yeah, I'd say so," he said.
Gilbert was already grieving when the flood came. His wife had died just three weeks earlier.
He says having someone beside him every day helped him through two devastating losses.
"Well, for both of us, we didn't have to do it alone," Gilbert said. "You know, you get depressed. You know, so it's nice to have somebody there every day to, you know, bounce your emotions off of them. So it's, it's really helped both of us."
The physical recovery is easier to see. The emotional recovery is not.
Gilbert says reminders of what he lost still surface in ordinary moments.
"A day doesn't go by that I don't think of, oh jeez, I have this, oh no, I don't have that anymore," Gilbert said. "Oh, I had those pictures. Oh, those pictures are gone. Oh, my high school yearbook, oh, that's gone."
Among the losses were 19 boxes containing about 1,100 Hallmark ornaments collected by his late wife. Gilbert said the ornaments were still in their original boxes and were set to be sold just days after the storm.
Then the flood came.
"I was gonna send them out on Tuesday. Well, then the rain happened Saturday night, Sunday, and the big old flood, and they were gone," Gilbert said.
Gilbert said FEMA provided some assistance, enough to help repair the front wall of his former home, but not enough to replace everything that was lost.
"It was enough to, fix the front wall, and that's, that was about it," Gilbert said. "And that's the thing with the FEMA. It's just an assistance."
There are signs of progress around Gilbert's block. Homes have been repaired, new neighbors have moved in and his former house is ready for another owner.
But just a few houses away, the recovery looks very different.
TMJ4 found damaged foundations and homes still showing serious signs of what happened one year ago.
And when heavy rain returns, so does some of the fear.
"So do we, you know, it's, oh, there's a sump pump running. Let's go down and check, you know, is it working," Gilbert said.
Gilbert said his partner still worries when storms approach. Her basement also filled with water during last year's flooding. FEMA assistance helped replace her furnace, water heater, washer and dryer.
Gilbert also still wants to know what has changed outside their homes.
A year ago, he publicly questioned why elected officials had not come to the neighborhood to see the destruction and talk with residents.
He says he is still asking.
"It'd be nice to see some of the city people that come around and see, you know, knock on the door. How's it going now?" Gilbert said. "You guys at the TV station do a great job of that. It'd be nice to see some of the city, you know, do the same thing."
Gilbert also raised concerns about whether debris has been cleared from Lincoln Creek and whether drains and other infrastructure are ready for another major rainfall.
TMJ4 reached out to both the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District and Milwaukee's Department of Public Works to ask what has been done in the area since the flood.
Bill Graffin, MMSD public information manager, said the district completed a roughly $120 million flood-management project along Lincoln Creek in 2002. MMSD says the project protects more than 2,000 homes and businesses.
The project included removing portions of the creek's old concrete channel, naturalizing the waterway and creating more room to hold floodwater.
Graffin said MMSD has flood-management responsibility for Lincoln Creek and other major waterways, while the City of Milwaukee owns and maintains local storm and sanitary sewers.
MMSD says its flood-management projects are generally designed to provide protection up to roughly a 100-year flood — an event with about a 1% chance of occurring in any given year. The August 2025 storm far exceeded that level, with one rain gauge recording more than 14 inches in a day.
MMSD is also planning another detention basin near Lincoln Creek. Graffin said that project has been delayed because of soil contamination at the former Bee Bus Line property.
When asked what new physical work had been completed specifically near 61st and Lawn since last August's flooding, MMSD did not identify a new project in that immediate area.
DPW also told TMJ4 it found no problems with the sewer infrastructure serving 61st and Lawn after the storm.
According to DPW, the system was functioning as designed but could not handle rainfall of that magnitude. Depending on age and location, Milwaukee's sewer system is generally designed for a five- or 10-year rain event, with streets providing additional drainage capacity when the sewer system is overwhelmed.
DPW said it continues cleaning catch basins and inlets on a regular one- to three-year schedule.
The department also says it made an operational change following the August 2025 flooding and another major rain event in April 2026: DPW updated its list of surface-flooding "hot spots." Crews now proactively clear debris from inlets in those areas before substantial rain is forecast.
DPW did not identify any new physical infrastructure project completed specifically near 61st and Lawn since last year's flood.
Both agencies stressed that a rainfall event as extreme as the one Milwaukee experienced last August can overwhelm even properly functioning infrastructure.
For me, the visit back to 61st and Lawn was also a return to a promise made during those difficult days after the flood — that I would keep checking on Gilbert and his neighborhood.
One year later, Gilbert's old house has been rebuilt. Other homes still bear the scars.
And the man who lost his wife, his home and so much of what was inside it says the past year has changed how he thinks about what really matters.
"Possessions aren't everything," Gilbert said.
"Waking up in the morning. You know, thanking the good Lord, you can put 2 ft on the ground and get up and move," he continued. "You know, nothing's guaranteed."
For those who saw Gilbert at one of the lowest moments of his life last summer and wondered what became of him, his answer is simple.
"That I've survived," Gilbert said.
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