As flash floods ripped through southeastern Wisconsin Saturday, Door County’s peninsula saw the worst summer storm in recent memory, according to emergency management.
“Our dispatch center took over 700 calls in an hour,” Jeb Saelens, the Door County Emergency Management director, told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”
The storm moved over Green Bay on Saturday afternoon and intensified quickly. Once it hit the northern part of Door County, it instantly caused “chaos,” Saelans said.
News with a little more humanity
WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” newsletter keeps you connected to the state you love without feeling overwhelmed. No paywall. No agenda. No corporate filter.
More than a dozen people were stranded on Cana Island and in Newport State Park, due to fallen trees and debris. It took seven hours at each location to get people out and back to shelter. There were no deaths or life-threatening injuries reported.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Natural Resources has temporarily closed Newport State Park due to the damage. And Cana Island lighthouse has been closed since the storm and will reopen Wednesday.
Saelens said restoration and cleanup is happening as fast as possible.
“We have a small community with small resources, about 30,000 residents,” he said. “But on any given weekend in the summer we have about a quarter million visitors in the county. So this definitely strained all of our resources.”
Saelens spoke with “Wisconsin Today” host Kate Archer Kent about the storm and the aftermath.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Kate Archer Kent: What were the difficulties in getting the stranded people out of Cana Island and Newport State Park?
Jeb Saelens: It was really just the amount of debris on the road. We just had to cut our way through foot by foot. Imagine a 20-foot pile of trees and you get through that and there’s another 20-foot pile of trees. Luckily, a contractor came in with some heavy machinery that helped us out a lot. But it was really difficult.
KAK: Door County being on a peninsula, there’s basically one or two main road arteries. What unique challenges does this create when responding to storms or natural disasters?
JS: All of our resources come from one direction so we’re basically an island. We really rely on our local community to rise up and help us out in these situations.
Door County is a small town community with a big heart, so when these things happen people step up and really help out. All of our fire departments except Sturgeon Bay are volunteers.
KAK: As you mentioned, this is prime tourist season for Door County. How does that affect cleanup efforts and the immediacy you feel to restore the area?
JS: It definitely had an economic impact. I think it’s too early to put a number on what that actually looks like. That will be looked at by Destination Door County and other economic bureaus.
But when these things happen everyone has a real sense of “Let’s get this recovery going.” Because our tour season is short up here so we need to make do with every day we get.
KAK: What are things that the community needs now? How can people help out?
JS: Cleanup efforts are underway currently. We’re currently just picking up all the pieces. Power is restored. I know there’s been a lot of questions on whether or not this is going to affect any upcoming vacations. And Door County definitely is open for business.
Cana Island and Newport State Park are still recovering so they are closed currently, but the rest of the county is still open for business. We encourage guests to come back up and enjoy Door County, especially with fall just around the corner.
KAK: Have you seen storms of this magnitude before?
JS: We had a very severe ice storm this spring that knocked out power to a wide swath of the county. But this was definitely the worst summer storm we’ve ever had in recent memory, for sure. Just the sheer amount of destruction that made roads impassable and the emergency calls that came from it was definitely one for the record.
