Madison Flood of May 2000

Here are some pictures that Beth took of the flooding on the University of Wisconsin's campus along Lake Mendota. This was nine days after the heavy rain but there is still a lot of water. They were pumping water out of a pond near the lake using a large (12" diamater) pipe in hopes of bringing the water level in the pond down so the road wouldn't be flooded. The carp living in the lake were strangely attracted to the end of the pipe and would try, without much success, to swim up the strong outflow. In desperation many of them would fling themselves out of the water and land in the mud around the bank (they were able to flop a few times and land back in the lake).

The pictures don't do the flood justice, but they tell part of the story. This aspect of the heavy rains we received at the end of May is relatively harmless and interesting, but some people's homes were flooded and a few even had sewage back up into their basement. So it wasn't all fun and games for some of Madison.

Pipe pumping water from pond to lake
across (underwater) road and bike path.

Parking Lot.
You could park your canoe at a meter.

Water being pumped into Lake Mendota.

Dirt berm to hold Mendota back.

Road between pond(off scene left) & lake(off scene right).

Ducks love floods!

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URL:http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~matg/flood2000/flood.html
Last Updated: 06/28/00