Federal Disaster Status in Northern Wisconsin
Photo by Colton Oltesvig.

Federal Disaster Status in Northern Wisconsin

Eight counties in northern Wisconsin have been given a Federal Disaster Declaration this summer due to flooding.

Damages from the events have exceeded $25 million according to the Wisconsin Public Radio website. Flooding, road and bridge damage and power outages left some areas severely crippled when an intense wind storm struck just days after the initial flooding began.

This is not the first time a federal major disaster declaration has been granted to the state. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists 38 declarations since 1965, all but seven list flooding in the description.

The frequency of these storms has increased over the past 50 years, and some may say climate change is to blame.

Severe weather is normal and caused by a multitude of factors, it is difficult to pinpoint climate change as a direct cause of any one weather event. However, the Environmental Protection Agency website explains that what climate change does increases the odds of said severe weather occurring.

With the increase of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, more heat is retained from the sun which makes the air warmer. Warmer air can hold more moisture which then falls as more rain.

The National Wildlife Federation website states that in the Midwest and Northeast, huge storms such as the one seen this past July occur, on average, in 20 year intervals. By the end of the 21st century, that average had increased to every four to six years.

Photo by Colton Oltesvig.

Photo by Colton Oltesvig.

These changes in weather have not gone unnoticed by residents of the state. Natalea Wright, recent international studies and German major graduate at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, was aware of the flooding up north this summer and said she believes climate change is to blame. With ice caps melting and water levels rising throughout the world, Wright said “everything seems off-tilt.”

She’s not the only one. Katrina Noles-Krantz, senior biology major at UWSP has family in one of the counties affected.

Her uncle’s boat in Saxon Harbor was one of only a handful that was not lost to the storm. Noles-Krantz said the weather being seen as long term seems abnormal to her, both here in Wisconsin and worldwide.

The one flooding incident in July is not the only event that led to Governor Scott Walker asking for the Federal Declaration.

Just days after the initial rain storm where, according to the National Weather Service, some areas received up to 10 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, a wind storm took many trees down, leaving 20,000 Xcel Energy customers without power for several days.

Revival of the impacted areas has since begun, leaving residents to wonder as they watch the cleanup, when the next severe weather event may be. If climate change is truly to blame, it may be sooner than predicted.

Samantha Stein

Reporter

Ssamantha.J.Stein@uwsp.edu

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